Inter-American Mental Health Week: PAHO and OAS join forces to disseminate information and strategies on mental health in the Region – PAHO/WHO

The Director of PAHO urges countries to make the mental health of children and adolescents a national priority, and PAHO launches an online course to improve mental health care for children and adolescents.

Washington, DC, October 9, 2025 (PAHO) – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) joins the Organization of American States (OAS) to celebrate the first Inter-American Mental Health Week during the second week of October.

The week of activities is aligned with PAHO’s overall strategy and focuses on the theme: “Empower, connect, care: strengthening the mental health of children and youth in the Americas.”

OAS delegations are supporting several activities during Inter-American Mental Health Week, including a webinar on Wednesday, October 8, where an expert from the Collaboration Center of the University of Chile presented a regional overview on the state of mental health services for children and adolescents in primary care.

A regional workshop scheduled for Thursday, October 9, co-organized by PAHO and the OAS, focuses on strengthening the capacity to respond to mental health emergencies through 911 systems.

“This regional collaboration reflects a shared commitment to address mental health challenges with a rights-based, patient-centered approach and to promote community initiatives throughout the hemisphere,” said PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa at the launch of the event.

Although children and adolescents represent approximately 30% of the population of the Region of the Americas, their mental health needs remain largely unmet. Among young people aged 15 to 24, depression and anxiety are the leading causes of years lived with disability, and suicide is the third leading cause of death, highlighting an urgent and preventable public health crisis.

“Unfortunately, many children and adolescents in the Region of the Americas face serious daily challenges such as violence, harassment, discrimination, poverty, health emergencies and environmental disasters, which increase their risk of developing mental health conditions,” explained PAHO Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa.

The virtual course was designed for health professionals who are not specialists in child and adolescent mental health, such as primary health care workers, as well as psychologists, nurses and social workers. It responds to the urgent need for early detection and treatment of mental health problems that often begin in childhood.

Held at the PAHO Virtual Public Health Campus, the course is designed to strengthen the capacity of health services to respond effectively and in a timely manner to the needs of this population. This self-paced program offers 10 modules covering anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use, developmental disorders, ADHD, autism, and suicide prevention.

«We must do better and now is the time to act. I urge all countries and territories in the Region to make child and adolescent mental health a national priority. This includes fostering social and emotional skills, training health workers to identify and manage mental health conditions in primary health care, and ensuring that schools and communities offer psychosocial support and develop key life skills,» said Dr. Barbosa.