the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean joined with mental health partners and stakeholders to launch the Regional Coalition for Mental Health Promotion and Substance Use Prevention.

The Coalition will provide a platform to align strategies and maximize collective impact. Stakeholders will be able to transform how mental health, psychosocial support and substance use are addressed across the Region and facilitate the urgently needed shift from stigmatization to empowerment, punishment to prevention, isolation to integration and fragmentation to coordinated, impactful action.

Tackling mental health conditions and substance use poses a major challenge at both the global and regional level. In today’s context of shrinking resources and growing needs, unified strategic actions are required. No single sector or agency can address the pressing challenges alone.