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The United States (US) Government and Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) have together called for greater spending in mental health in the aftermath of COVID-19.
U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Health from the region, and PAHO Director, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne made this call at the recent launch of the Economic and Health Dialogue of the Americas. This is a government-to-government initiative, organised by the US Government, to coordinate action across the highest of health and finance ministries to address the challenges exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic.
According to Dr. Etienne, “Never before has the case for investing in health and the health economy been made so clearly, and the consequences of under-investment been rendered so starkly.” She added that health is central to “everything countries of our region covet for their future,” including economic prosperity and “limitless opportunity for all citizens.”
The event which was hosted by the US Under Secretary of Growth, Energy and Environment Jose Fernandez, included the participation of Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organisation of American States, as well as from Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Health and Finance from Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Panama, among other high-level representatives.
The PAHO Director reminded dignitaries that the Americas was at the epicenter of the pandemic, with 157 million cases and over 2.7 million lives lost to COVID-19. “No community went untouched,” Dr. Etienne said. “Our health, social and economic systems were stretched to the limit.”
She highlighted that ill-prepared health systems struggled with the constant surge in cases, even after a massive injection of resources. When COVID-19 hit the region, Dr. Etienne said, countries struggled to “overcome long standing systemic deficiencies, the result of ill-conceived health sector reforms, and the lack of political attention to health over decades.”
She welcomed the June 7th launch of the Dialogue and thanked the United States “for convening this Forum and initiating this important deliberation on a future Americas where we have stronger, more resilient health systems.”
Moving forward, the Director said countries will need to sustain investment to ensure health systems are “equipped to respond to this and future new threats when they arise.” To that end, it would be critical to increase spending in health beyond the current levels of 3.7% of GDP, “to achieve the PAHO recommended target of 6% of GDP, and not just in the years when crisis hits.”
Secretary Blinken in his remarks noted that COVID-19 has revealed “serious inequities in the way health care is provided, is distributed, is made available to people,” and that “we want to take that lesson to heart.” According to him, a platform to help countries share lessons and come together on key areas to strengthen health systems would “have a dramatic and powerful impact on the lives of all of our citizens.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier this year sounded a warning that the pandemic has triggered a 25 percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. The organisation noted that the figure should serve as a wake-up call to countries to step up mental health services and support. It was found that a major explanation for the increase in mental health is social isolation resulting from the pandemic, where people were constrained from closed physical contact with friends, loved ones and colleagues. Those mostly affected are women and young people.
