Statistics

• More than 50% will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime.

• 1 in 5 Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year.

• 1 in 5 children, either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental illness.

• 1 in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.

• 1 in every 8 people in the world live with a mental disorder.

• 1 in 4 people will be affected by a mental illness at some point in their lives.

• 14.3% of deaths worldwide, or approximately 8 million deaths each year, are attributable to mental disorders.

The World Health Organization WHO was established in 1948 by various countries to bring the world together to promote health and wellness.  April 7, 2023 is World Health day and that date marks the anniversary of the founding of this global health organization.  The theme for the day is Health for All. 

The National Library of medicine states that the community of regulators, scientists, clinicians and patient advocacy groups places as approximation 7,000 as the number of rare diseases, or between 5,000 and 8,000 depending on the source, some experts even venture to the 10,000 number mark.  There are factors that are behind the wide variation of the amount of rare diseases and that asks for a global effort to compile and curate medical knowledge on rare diseases.  The World Health Organization has been for a century working and implementing the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).  For a century it has been the basis for comparing causes of mortality and morbidity between places and over time.  The latest version, fully electronic, of the ICD is ICD-11, International Classification of Diseases 11th revision.  This revision, a testimony of the collaborative efforts with medical, statisticians, classification, coding and Information Technology experts allows countries to enumerate and identify the most demanding health issues by using a fluid, up to date tool that allows government to respond appropriately in designing health policies, analyze and measure their impact, and record data.   

This fully electronic tool provides access to 17,000 diagnostic categories, with over 100,000 medical diagnostic index terms. The index-based search algorithm interprets more than 1.6 million terms. At the writing of this blog it is available in the seven languages of Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, and Turkish.

When all is thought and said and done, thank you to the medical community from the Child Life Specialists, the Surgeons, the Surgical Assistants, the Nurses, the Secretaries, the Positron Emission Tomography Technologists, the Anesthesiologists, the Paramedics, to the Security Guards, the CNA’s, and the Janitors.

World Health Day is commemorated to educate people about taking care of their health.  This day is used as an opportunity to draw focus on a subject of major importance to global health, and, in this case, Health For All.  When one looks at the swath of humanity painted across the face of the world and the overwhelming amount of health issues and challenges, where does one start to focus with health?   

Perhaps you, like me, during the pandemic came face to face in a huge room of glass that stretched from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall.  The glass was partly mirror, partly window.  Some were straight, some were blurry, some distorted, some contorted.  Some were cracked, some were clean, some were dirty, some were shattered, some were windows looking out; most were mirrors looking in.  Then my head started to spin.

 What is your plan to care for your mental health?  What is one little step that you will take to get you where you want to go? Comment Below.

References

CDC      

United Nations

National Library of Medicine

Resources

Mental Health For All