Distinguished delegates
Partners and colleagues
This meeting is timely. It is necessary. And for the children and young people across our region, it is overdue.
Mental health conditions do not wait for adulthood. One-third emerge before the age of 14, half before the age of 18.
Of course, these are not just statistics.
They are our children in our schools, adolescents in our communities.
Young people finding their footing in societies that are changing faster than we can track.
The burden in our region is substantial.
Some 260 million people, 13.2% of our population, live with a mental health condition.
Among children aged 5 to 14, self-harm together with mental, neurological and substance use disorders account for 25% of all years lived with disability. And 15% of all disability-adjusted life years in that age group.
And yet, most cases remain undetected. And most remain untreated.
We are also home to nearly 360 million adolescents — 27% of all adolescents in the world.
This demographic reality is both a responsibility and an opportunity.
If we act decisively, we can shape an entire generation that is resilient, supported and empowered.
If we do not, the human, social and economic consequences will be felt for decades, in our region and around the world.
Encouragingly, progress has been made.
Several Member States have undertaken comprehensive mappings of child and adolescent mental health services.
They have generated evidence and insights that we need for planning, and for building integrated, community-based models of care.
That evidence is the platform on which this meeting stands.
But challenges persist, particularly in resource-constrained settings.
Service coverage remains limited.
Multi-sectoral coordination is often insufficient.
Health-care providers may lack the knowledge and skills required.
Schools, communities and families are not always equipped to identify, support and refer.
Closing these gaps demands a comprehensive approach: prevention, promotion, early intervention and accessible, quality treatment.
We must also be clear about what is at stake beyond health systems.
Children and adolescents with mental health conditions face heightened risks of violence, injury and noncommunicable diseases.
This is compounded by stigma, exclusion and inequity.
The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health applies to all of us – and certainly to them too.
And so, accessible, inclusive, person-centred services are not aspirational.
They are a moral imperative, and a legal obligation.
They are human rights realised.
Our direction was set by the Paro Declaration, adopted unanimously at the Seventy-fifth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in 2022.
As you know, it calls for mental health to be addressed through primary health care, community engagement and a life-course approach.
The Mental Health Action Plan for the WHO South-East Asia Region 2023–2030 provides the framework, covering policies and laws, service strengthening, prevention and promotion, and surveillance and research.
This meeting must advance that framework.
The outcome we seek is more than a set of documents.
It is great knowledge, stronger partnerships and an enhanced readiness for implementation.
Before I close, I want to take a moment to recognize the leadership of our host country, Thailand.
In close collaboration with WHO, Thailand has demonstrated what sustained commitment to mental health looks like in practice:
The International Mental Health Workforce Training Program, now in its fourth edition, is building the much needed human capacity that is the backbone of all mental health services.
In the implementation of WHO’s innovative Step-by-Step digital intervention, we can see the alignment of political will and technical partnership to tackle mild-to-moderate depression.
Last year’s International Conference on Mental Health Support in Conflict-Affected Areas extended a community-based approach to some of the most difficult contexts.
And this year, Thailand is hosting the first-ever Asia edition of the Build Better Before workshop, a multi-sectoral exercise in mental health and psychosocial support operational readiness.
Thailand has not simply participated in this agenda. Thailand has helped lead it. We are grateful, and we are inspired.
It is with this inspiration that we turn to those most precious to us—our children.
And there is nothing more precious we can give them than good health and wellbeing.
Their mental health is the foundation of both their futures and ours.
I thank you all for your dedication to this cause, and to them.
I wish you a productive meeting, and look forward to the outcomes.
Thank you.