{"id":61175,"date":"2025-09-03T21:07:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action"},"modified":"2025-09-03T21:43:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:43:52","slug":"mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action","title":{"rendered":"MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded a global alarm, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are now among the most common illnesses worldwide, affecting people of all ages and income levels.<\/p>\n

They are the second leading cause of long-term disability, draining healthy years from lives and placing a heavy economic burden on families and nations alike.<\/p>\n

WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called the transformation of mental health services \u2018one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time,urging governments to treat mental health care as a basic human right, not a privilege.<\/p>\n

Here in Lesotho, the urgency is impossible to ignore. According to the country\u2019s new Mental Health Policy and Strategic Plan (2023\u20132027), nearly 431,000 Basotho, almost one in five people, are living with some form of mental illness. Yet the nation\u2019s mental health system is stretched to breaking point.<\/p>\n

Source: WHO<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded a global alarm, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are now among the most common illnesses worldwide, affecting people of all ages and income levels. They are the second leading cause of long-term disability, draining healthy years from lives and placing a heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-61175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nMENTAL HEALTH CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded a global alarm, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded a global alarm, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T21:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T21:43:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1756919154.232384.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T21:07:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-03T21:43:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\"},\"wordCount\":167,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1756919154.232384.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mental-health-crisis-demands-urgent-action\",\"name\":\"MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION - 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