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"Like minds like mine" was the slogan of a New Zealand government campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness (c)World Health Organization

"Like minds like mine" was the slogan of a New Zealand government campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness (c)World Health Organization

Raising awareness about mental health among faith communities, sharing information on what they are doing in this area (best practice), and providing an ecumenical and inter-religious platform for learning on mental health in different regions will be the focus of WCC work on "mental health and faith communities" over the next few years. 

The focus is a new one for the Council. Based on the findings of an ecumenical consultation on "The global health situation and the mission of the church in the 21st century" that took place in Breklum, Germany, in September 2005, the WCC's 9th assembly in 2006 asked that mental health be included the Council's programmatic agenda.  

Composed of mental health professionals from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and North America, a small advisory group is meeting from 28-31 January in Geneva to formulate a plan of action for this endeavour. 

"Our vision is for faith communities to be mobilized, with enhanced capacity to respond appropriately, in conjunction with the formal health sector, to the tremendous human and material resource gap in regard to mental health that the world is facing today," says Dr Manoj Kurian of the World Council of Churches programme on Justice, Diakonia and Responsibility for Creation. 

Paper on "Mental health as a key issue in the future of global health development" presented at the Breklum consultation