Transnational Inclusive Mental Health De-Stigmatising Education (TIMHDE): An exploration of the means to engage global communities in mental health de-stigmatisation.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged high income countries often address mental health discrimination, but low/middle income countries often had a significant gap in how they measure the problem, and in strategies, policies and programmes to prevent it. Localised actions have occurred. The Hong Kong Governments 2017 international conference ‘Mental Health Matters: Overcoming the Stigma”, which has seen several developments as a result, for example the establishment of MIND HK. Another action was the 2018 London Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit, uniting experts/high profile individuals to find solutions to reducing mental health (MH) stigma. Additionally, the UK Medical Research Council have funded Professor Thornicroft, (expert in MH discrimination and stigma), to undertake a global study. These and other approaches are welcome and bring improvements, however they often rely on traditional westernised, ‘Global North’ views/approaches. However, given rapid global demographic changes/dynamics and lack of evidence demonstrating progress towards positive mental health globally, it is time to consider alternative and transformative approaches that encompasses diverse cultures and societies and aligns to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG), specifically UN SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing). This paper describes the need for the change and suggests how positive change can be achieved through Transnational Inclusive Mental Health De-Stigmatising Education.