Why we need a mental health revolution today
The toll? A mental health epidemic hiding in plain sight. Our ancestors feared 'surviving' crises, we're crumbling under the weight of 'watching' them.
We are the first generation to witness global catastrophes in real time, not as distant headlines but as visceral, algorithm-fuelled content.
The psychological cost is staggering. A 2023 American Psychological Association study found that 78 per cent of adults now cite news consumption as a 'significant stressor', while Unicef warns that 1 in 5 young people globally show symptoms of anxiety or depression linked to 'doomscrolling'. Worse, research in 'Nature Human Behaviour' reveals that constant exposure to suffering triggers 'compassion collapse' - numbness to human pain.
Yet mental healthcare remains frozen in time. Traditional therapy can't scale to meet demand, stigma silences millions, and Western-centric models fail diverse cultures. In low-income countries, 75 per cent of people lack access to care (WHO). Refugees in Jordan, for example, often reject clinical therapy, seeking community-based healing instead. Our systems are Band-Aids on bullet wounds.
Mental health innovation, like health-tech, has lagged far behind the pace of crises. Apps like Nafas, Calm or crisis hotlines offer temporary relief but ignore systemic roots: collective trauma, economic despair, and the isolation of digital life.
Meanwhile, social media algorithms profit from our despair, pushing polarising content that deepens divides. We're stuck in a loop - treating symptoms while the world burns.
Mental health
To survive this age, we need mental health solutions as dynamic as the threats we face. Here's what a revolution looks like:
1. AI that heals, Not hurts
Imagine AI platforms trained to crowdsource resilience strategies from trauma survivors worldwide. Rwanda's 'Ubuntu AI' pilot does exactly this, generating culturally tailored coping tools for refugees. Instead of algorithms that feed rage, we need ones that foster collective healing.
2. Teletherapy for the masses
When Türkiye-Syria's 2023 earthquake struck, free teletherapy apps saw a 300-per cent surge in users. This proves scalable digital care works, but only if made affordable and multilingual.
3. Decolonising mental health
South Africa's 'Healing Through Heritage' programme slashed PTSD rates by 40 per cent by blending traditional rituals with clinical therapy. Solutions must respect cultural roots, not impose foreign frameworks.
4. Policy as prevention
New Zealand's 2019 'Wellbeing Budget' ties mental health funding to real-time crisis data. Governments must treat mental health like infrastructure - critical, urgent and lifesaving.
The chaos won't stop, but we can rewire how we respond. This isn't about 'self-care' - it's about societal care. Tech giants must redesign algorithms to prioritise hope over harm. Schools and workplaces need 'mental health first aid' training to spot crises early. Communities must revive ancestral wisdom, like Oman's mediation ethos, which bridges divides through dialogue.
We're at a crossroads: perpetuate a broken system or build one that turns collective trauma into collective strength. The next crisis is already trending. Will we be ready?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
Are Samosas unhealthy? Some Indians find official advice hard to swallow
NEW DELHI — Indians eat a mind-boggling array of street food. They nosh on pakoras, or vegetable fritters; jalebis, which are deep-fried coils of fermented batter dunked in sugar syrup; and papdi chaat, a tart and spicy mélange of crunchy fried dough, yogurt and spices — to name just a few. The snacks, often washed down with chai, are ubiquitous, filling and relatively cheap. But the king of street food — and one of India's most famous culinary exports — is the samosa. The deep-fried, plump and triangular piece of flaky dough has crisp edges, encasing a heavily spiced potato stuffing. Usually served with tangy and sweet condiments, they cost as little as 15 cents at food carts or stalls throughout the country. So, when a recent government advisory put samosas — along with other deep-fried Indian snacks and Western foods such as burgers and French fries — on a list of things that should be eaten in moderation because of their high oil and sugar content, there was an unsurprising outcry. Social media erupted with memes, and Indian media chimed in to say the country's most iconic bites were under attack. A love of the samosa is 'ingrained in us,' said Rana Safvi, a cultural historian, who said it served as both street food and comfort food. If the government had targeted only burgers or pizza, people wouldn't have cared, she said. 'Samosa is too close to them.' Some news outlets fueled the backlash by likening the directive to health warnings on cigarettes. The actual advisory was considerably milder than that. India's health ministry on June 21 sent out a notice to all government ministries requesting that they put up posters in public spaces, such as office cafeterias and meeting rooms, showing the oil and sugar levels in certain foods. In the sample posters, the much-loved samosa was first on the high-fat list. (Jalebis were lower down on the high-sugar poster.) The daily recommended intake of fats is 27 to 30 grams, and one samosa can contain between 17 and 28 grams, according to the posters (types of fat are not specified). Last month, the government moved to clarify its intentions, saying it had not directed vendors to put warning labels on their products, and that it wasn't selectively targeting Indian snacks. It is called the advisory, a 'behavioral nudge to make people aware of hidden fats and excess sugar' in many types of food. The move was in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign to encourage active lifestyles, called Fit India. Earlier this year, Modi used his radio program to call on people to reduce the amount of oil they consume. Nearly 1 in 5 adults in India's urban areas are overweight or obese, the 2021 National Family Health Survey found. The percentage of children under 5 years of age who are overweight is also increasing, it found. India, a country of about 1.4 billion people, is expected to have 450 million overweight or obese people by 2050, second only to China, according to a study by The Lancet, a medical journal. The government has identified obesity, which can push up rates of cardiovascular problems, Type 2 diabetes, and other diseases, as a major public health challenge. Street foods such as jalebis, samosas, and chole bhature — chickpea curry with deep-fried bread — are deep-fried in saturated or partially hydrogenated oils, and often refried in the same oil, which significantly increases trans fatty acid content, said Dr. Anoop Misra, an endocrinologist. If government health programs are executed and regulated well, they could 'lead to a significant reduction in obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease,' he said. Street food lovers are not ignorant of the perils. On a recent afternoon, Sanjay Kumar, 29, stood by Old Famous Jalebi Wala, a shop that has been in business since 1884, in Delhi's bustling Chandni Chowk bazaar. He was eating a jalebi topped with rabri, a condensed milk dish. Kumar said he was overweight but allowed himself the occasional treat. Although jalebis are available everywhere, the freshly made ones at the stall — which is about the length of a bus — are of 'top quality,' he said. 'I know that jalebis increase the weight, but what do I do?' Kumar said. 'Jalebis are so tasty.' Such snacks are necessary because lower-income workers cannot afford to buy food in expensive restaurants, said Rishabh Nath, who runs a food stall founded by his father adjacent to Delhi's high-end Khan Market. It opens at 5 a.m. daily and quickly becomes crowded with workers filling up for the day ahead. Dheeraj Sharma, who works for a driving school, said he had been eating samosas from a stall four times a week for the past decade. He is aware of the dangers of too much fried food, but he said samosas were his snack of choice because they're 'tasty, easy to eat, and cheap to buy.' Sharma, 30, said it was a good idea for governments to urge shops to display more information about the foods they sell. But, he added, 'this is the fun of life, so why not enjoy?' This article originally appeared in
Observer
04-08-2025
- Observer
Plastic pollution 'grave and growing' health threat: Report
Paris - Plastic pollution is a "grave, growing and under-recognised danger" to health that is costing the world at least $1.5 trillion a year, experts warned in a report on Monday. The new review of the existing evidence, which was carried out by leading health researchers and doctors, was published one day ahead of fresh talks opening in Geneva, aiming to seal the world's first treaty on plastic pollution. "Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion annually," said the review in The Lancet medical journal. Comparing plastic to air pollution and lead, the report said its impact on health could be mitigated by laws and policies. The experts called for the delegates from nearly 180 nations gathering in Geneva to finally agree to a treaty after previous failed attempts. Philip Landrigan, a doctor and researcher at Boston College in the United States, warned that vulnerable people, particularly children, are most affected by plastic pollution. "It is incumbent on us to act in response," he said in a statement. "To those meeting in Geneva: please take up the challenge and the opportunity of finding the common ground that will enable meaningful and effective international cooperation in response to this global crisis." The researchers also warned about tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics, which have been found throughout nature -- and throughout human bodies. The full effect of microplastics on health is not yet fully known, but researchers have sounded the alarm about the potential impact of this ubiquitous plastic. The amount of plastic produced by the world has risen from two million tonnes in 1950 to 475 million tonnes in 2022, the report said. The number is projected to triple by 2060. Yet currently less than 10 percent of all plastic is recycled, it added. Landrigan said that the world's plastic "crisis" is connected to its climate crisis. Plastic is made from fossil fuels. "There is no understating the magnitude of both the climate crisis and the plastic crisis," Landrigan said. "They are both causing disease, death, and disability today in tens of thousands of people, and these harms will become more severe in the years ahead as the planet continues to warm and plastic production continues to increase," he said. The report also announced a new effort to track the impact plastic pollution has on health, the latest in a series called The Lancet Countdown.
Observer
04-08-2025
- Observer
More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine. The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. "Everyone who goes there comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," said 40-year-old Palestinian Bilal Thari. He was among mourners at Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of their loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials. At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said. At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said. "We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari said. There was no immediate comment by Israel on Sunday's incident. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution centre in the southern Gaza Strip, but it did not elaborate further. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how the military should proceed in Gaza to meet all his government's war goals, which include defeating Hamas and releasing the captives. Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the past week, over 23,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organisations.
