22 January 2013
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Dear GMH colleagues,
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I was at the WHO Executive Board meetings today and want to report that there was tremendous support for the GMH Action Plan 2013-2020, discussed this morning for about 90 minutes. There were no major objections but rather sincere appreciation for the efforts of the WHO Secretariat ,WHO-MH, civil society, NGOs, and member c=states for the ongoing cooperative efforts to get GMH to this point. The next step will be to "tweak" a few items (targets and criteria for example) although nothing major regarding the vision, goal, objectives, cross-cutting themes, etc. The Action Plan will then go the the World Health Assembly in May 2013 for discussion/debate and hopefully approval.
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In addition to the 25 countries that made supportive statements and some recommendations, the WFMH rounded off the comments with a helpful statement from the floor (about the Great Push, the survey done that harmonizes well with the Action Plan, the relevance for mental health in a special UN GA assembly and for the next version of the MDGs (sustainable development goals 2015).
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The zero draft of the Action Plan gives the overall Vision and Goal:
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**Vision: A world in which mental health is valued, mental disorders are effectively prevented, and in which persons affected by these disorders are able to access evidence-based health and social care and exercise the full range of human rights to attain the highest possible level of health and functioning free from stigma and discrimination.
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**Goal: To promote mental well-being, prevent mental disorders, and reduce the mortality and disability for persons with mental disorders.
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For more information on the Action Plan:
http://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap/consultation_global_mh_action_plan_2013_
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Warm greetings,
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Kelly
Dr. Kelly O'Donnell
MHPS Working Group, NGO Forum for Health
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Global Mental Health
**A Resource Map for Connecting and Contributing (article: July 2011)
**Finding Your Niches and Networks (article: March 2012)
**A Resource Primer for Exploring the Domain (article: July 2012)
**GMH-Map: A Global Map for a Global Movement (website
