One of the most pressing challenges to health systems globally, and in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region in particular, is that of effectively reducing the prevalence of mental disorders and the related disability and mortality.

Mental disorders are common and disabling. At any given time, about 1 person in every 10 is suffering from a mental disorder, and about 1 in 4 families has a member with a mental disorder (1). Rates of mental disorder are even greater where there are complex emergencies, such as are being faced by many countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Globally, mental, neurological and substance-use disorders account for 22.9% of non-fatal disease burden (measured as years lived with disability) and 7.4% of the global burden of disease (measured as disability adjusted life years, a metric which encompasses years lived with disability as well as early death) (2).