This Year’s World Mental Health Day Theme Arrives as both a Warning and a Wake Up Call
Mental health is often the invisible casualty of crisis
This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day (2025) is “Access to Services – Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies.” It couldn’t be more apt. At a time when the world feels increasingly unstable with wars, climate events intensifying, and social / political unrest simmering across continents — this year’s World Mental Health Day theme arrives as both a warning and a wake up call. When calamity strikes, be it a war, flood, epidemic, or political upheaval we often see the damage externally which is only half the story.
The other half unfolds quietly within people interms of insomnia , anxiety , panic attacks, depression , PTSD, Acute stress disorder, night mares , flashbacks and survivor guilt. This is the silent aftermath which is often overlooked. Mental health is often the invisible casualty of crisis.
Hospitals and relief systems focus only on physical survival , food, medicine, shelter while psychological injuries remain unseen and untreated. Those with pre-existing conditions may lose access to care altogether, leading to relapse or worsening distress. The National Mental Health Survey shows that nearly one in seven Indians requires psychological support, yet the treatment gap remains vast.