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Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change

World Mental Health Day 2026 focuses on the meaningful engagement of people with lived experience of mental health conditions in the policies and services that affect them.

According to the latest Global Burden of Disease study, an estimated 1.17 billion people worldwide were living with a mental disorder in 2023, nearly twice as many as in 1990. Over the same period, mental disorders rose from the twelfth to the fifth leading cause of health loss globally and became the leading cause of years lived with disability. Yet people living with these conditions, who often know best what support helps them, have frequently been excluded from decisions that shape mental health policies and services.

Each year on October 10, World Mental Health Day raises awareness of mental health and supports efforts to improve it. This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has chosen the theme "Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change," which recognizes the knowledge of people with lived experience as an important form of expertise. According to the WHO, meaningful engagement goes beyond listening: it gives people opportunities to influence decisions, help design services, lead peer support, challenge stigma, and hold mental health systems accountable.

Many countries have begun this work in national planning. According to the WHO’s Mental Health Atlas 2024, 80% of countries with a mental health policy or plan developed it in consultation with people with lived experience. Involvement in care delivery is less common: only 45% of countries reported ongoing collaboration with lived experience and family advocacy groups on services, and only 37% included people with lived experience in training primary health care workers.

The Atlas also shows that only 9% of countries have fully moved from institution-based to community-based care. Around half of reported psychiatric hospital admissions are involuntary, and more than one in five stays last longer than a year. On October 9, the WHO released a practical guide on deinstitutionalization that encourages hospitals, health authorities, people with lived experience, families, and community services to work together through this transition.

Evidence shows that involving people with lived experience improves mental health efforts. The Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health, developed with experts by experience from around the world, found that social contact between people with and without lived experience is the most effective way to reduce stigma. Support for peer roles in mental health care is also growing. In 2025, the WHO Regional Office for Europe published a roadmap to help countries integrate lived and living experience practitioners into policy, services, and communities.

Young people’s perspectives are essential, too. In a 2025 Pew Research Center report, 48% of U.S. teens said social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, but only 14% said the same about themselves. A UNICEF survey of Gen Z in seven countries found that six in ten young people feel overwhelmed by news and world events, and about four in ten believe that discussing mental health carries stigma at school or work. In the United States, one-third of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2025, according to the latest national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Countries can build on this progress by involving people with lived experience in writing policies, designing services, training health workers, and monitoring quality, and by funding peer support as part of the mental health workforce. The WHO’s framework for meaningful engagement offers practical guidance toward the 2025 UN Political Declaration target of giving 150 million more people access to mental health care by 2030.

To learn more, explore our resource packs on Global Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and Youth Mental Health in the United States or explore the selected resources below.

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