AnxietyDepression
When we think of international aid, we usually picture packages of food, vaccines, and water and sanitation systems. Evidently, these are all fundamental needs for a healthy society. However, there’s another, equally fundamental, component that is too often overlooked: mental health. Mental health is an underserved cause in international aid for the same reasons it is still a taboo topic in most countries.
The Stigma of Mental Health
First off, it carries a stigma. If you have a mental illness, the common conception is that there’s something wrong with you, as a person, as a human being. While for more physical diseases, we separate the illness from the person, in the case of mental disease, it’s more difficult to do so. Since the disease affects the mind, this is understandable to some extent, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
Secondly, mental health is perceived as a luxury good. If you suffer from depression, it means you’re just a whiny person with all your basic needs satisfied. Doesn’t it? Obviously, there’s nothing falser than this statement, yet it’s worryingly common. Moreover, in the case of international aid, mental health struggles to attract donations also because of a marketing issue.
Research has shown that people are likely to donate twice as much if they empathize with a picture, rather than being presented with bare stats. And it’s much easier to capture a physical disease or a material need in a photo than a mental disease. As an outcome of this cocktail of problems, mental health is one of the most neglected health problems in the developing world. This invisible issue has tangible consequences. It doesn’t matter if you could learn a new skill thanks to an NGO project or benefit from a malaria prevention program; if you have a mental illness, the positive impact of these programs is dramatically curbed. The socio-economic repercussions of untreated mental illnesses are devastating.
