Give Mental Health Patients A Say In Decisions – WHO
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark World Mental Health Day 2026, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on governments and health systems to move beyond listening to people with mental health conditions and give them a meaningful role in shaping the policies and services that affect their lives.
The call comes amid concerns that people with lived experience are often invited to share personal stories but excluded from decisions about their treatment, recovery and access to care.
The WHO, in its message on October 10, said the theme, “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change,” was intended to recognise the knowledge of people who have experienced mental health conditions and make their participation central to reforming mental health services.
According to WHO, meaningful participation goes beyond hearing personal testimonies. It requires involving people with lived experience in designing services, developing policies, evaluating programmes and holding institutions accountable.
“World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health conditions and to recognize their knowledge as a vital form of expertise. This year’s campaign calls for their voices to shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives,” the organisation noted.
Further, WHO said: “Lived experience is what someone has experienced themselves, especially when it gives the individual knowledge or understanding that people who have only heard or learnt about such experiences do not have. Too often, PWLE are asked to share their stories but excluded from decisions. Meaningful engagement extends beyond simply being heard.
“It means creating opportunities for people to influence decisions, co-design services, strengthen peer-led approaches, challenge stigma and strengthen accountability. When PWLE are meaningfully engaged, mental health systems are likely to become more person-centred, rights-based and responsive to people’s needs and concerns.”
The WHO said their experiences could reveal barriers that health professionals and policymakers might otherwise overlook, helping services respond more closely to the needs of patients and their families.
“One important priority for PWLE is the shift away from long-stay psychiatric institutions towards community-based, person-centered mental health care. Institutions tend to be isolating and are too often associated with poor-quality care, coercion and human rights abuses.
“Deinstitutionalisation requires a carefully planned shift in funding, services and support so that people can live in their communities. Reflecting this priority, WHO will launch practical guidance on deinstitutionalisation.
“On this World Mental Health Day, let us move from listening to action – and build mental health systems with PWLE, not merely for them. Mental health systems should be built with people who have lived experience, not merely for them,” WHO noted.
The campaign also draws attention to the need for more humane, person-centred care, including a shift away from dependence on long-stay psychiatric institutions towards adequately supported community-based services.
The WHO noted that only nine per cent of countries responding to its Mental Health Atlas 2024 survey had fully transitioned to community-based mental health care, while 53 per cent remained at an early stage of the transition.
It also reported that 45 percent of responding countries had ongoing collaboration with people with lived experience and family or caregiver advocacy groups in planning, delivering or monitoring mental health services.
The figures point to a gap between recognising patients’ rights and ensuring that their experiences influence how care is organised and delivered.
For Nigeria, the message raises questions about the place of patients, survivors and caregivers in mental health policy, treatment decisions and the delivery of community services.
Nigeria has a Mental Health Act, but questions remain about implementation, the availability of services and the extent to which people experiencing mental health conditions can obtain affordable, respectful care without stigma or discrimination.
Stakeholders note that the challenge is not simply to encourage people to speak about mental illness, but to ensure that their voices carry weight when decisions are made about their lives.
World Mental Health Day is observed annually on October 10 to raise awareness, challenge stigma and promote better mental health care worldwide.
