Today is World Mental Health Day, an annual event designed to raise public awareness about mental health issues worldwide. The day promotes open discussions on illnesses as well as investments in prevention and treatment services. This year the theme for the day is “Depression: A Global Crisis.”

World Health Day was first celebrated in 1992 as an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), which has members and contacts in more than 150 countries. Each year the UN, through the World Health Organization (WHO), actively participates in promoting this event.

Mental disorders affect nearly 12 % of the world’s population. About 450 million, or one out of every four people around the world, will experience a mental illness that would benefit from diagnosis and treatment.