Mental health conditions account for a large proportion of global disease burden due to a combination of high prevalence, most lifetime mental health conditions arising before adulthood, and a broad range of impacts across health including suicide, education, employment, social relationships, crime, violence and stigma. Poor mental wellbeing has a similar broad range of impacts. Crises such as pandemics and conflict further increase risk of mental health conditions, their relapse and poor mental wellbeing. 

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Effective public mental health (PMH) interventions exist to treat mental health conditions, prevent associated impacts, prevent mental health conditions from arising and promote mental wellbeing. Groups at higher risk of mental health conditions and poor mental wellbeing require targeted approaches to prevent widening of inequalities.

Globally however, only a minority of those with mental health conditions receive any treatment with far less coverage in low- and middle-income countries. Provision of interventions to prevent associated impacts is even lower, and provision of interventions to prevent mental health conditions or promote mental wellbeing is negligible. The public mental health implementation gap breaches the right to health and results in population scale preventable suffering, broad impacts and associated economic costs. Various reasons account for the gap including insufficient funding with only 2% of global health expenditure allocated to mental health (WHO, 2021).