UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Public policy and mental health: What we can learn from the HIV movement
David Scheerer, Zina Nimeh & Stefan Weinmann #2016-022Mental health plays a key role in human development, both as a driver
and as a goal in itself. Despite this, mental health has been strikingly
neglected to date. The HIV movement has revolutionised health advocacy
and registered remarkable successes in the past decades. The present
study draws on the experience of this exceptional movement in order to
find ways forward in the field of mental health. Adopting a broad
analytical perspective, it discusses the differences and similarities
between the fields of HIV and mental health and, based on this analysis,
provides a concrete model for action that takes into account the
peculiarities of mental health as a policy issue.
Keywords: mental health, health, public policy, social mobilisation,
social exclusion, poverty, HIV movement, AIDS, HIV, development, stigma,
discrimination, social networks
JEL Classification: I11, I12, I14, I15, I18, I30, O10, O19, O20
Download the working paper (PDF)
