Nepal, June 30 -- Recently, through the various community sessions I have been part of, I came to realise a very obvious issue in Nepal's mental health sector. This problem is closely tied to how we are trying to prioritise mental health. Surprisingly, the issue is not that mental health is being ignored anymore. In fact, the government has introduced important initiatives, including the National Mental Health Strategy and Action Plan 2077, as well as the National Mental Health Programme 2022.

These initiatives have increased conversations around mental health and brought greater awareness, but the issue here is actually on the implementation side.

If mental health has become a national priority, as these initiatives suggest, why do we ...