Dhaka, Oct. 16 -- As the world marks World Mental Health Day 2025, the conversation has turned to an urgent question: who receives care when disaster strikes? This year's theme - "Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies" - underscores a sobering truth. When earthquakes, floods, wars, or pandemics unravel societies, the very systems that sustain mental health often collapse. For countries like Bangladesh, where climate disasters and displacement are recurring realities, the challenge of maintaining access to mental health care during crises has never been more immediate.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2025), over one billion people worldwide live with mental health conditions. Emergencies make t...