Overview

The report “Adolescent mental health: mapping actions of nongovernmental organizations and other international development organizations” describes actions undertaken by a range of international development organizations to address adolescents’ mental health needs at country level. It was produced in collaboration with UNICEF.

Adolescent mental health is inadequately addressed by international development organizations and actions at country level appear to be fragmented. Interventions for promotion of psychosocial well-being and provision of mental health care to adolescents often have narrowly-focused, project-specific objectives, while opportunities to mainstream adolescent mental health in education, health and child protection programmes are still largely untapped.

The report was presented during an International Experts Meeting on “Bridging the Mental Health Gap: Reaching the World’s Adolescents”, on the occasion of the launch of UNICEF’s 2011 State of the World’s Children Report on Adolescents, and provided a basis for discussion on priorities for future joint efforts in the field. It is hoped that it will increase facilitate coordinated actions by international development organizations and other stakeholders towards improved programming on adolescent mental health in countries.