4th Global Mental Health Advocacy Forum: Key Learnings and Take-Home Messages for Mental Health Advocates from the Forum’s Plenary Sessions

The 4th Global Mental Health Advocacy Forum foregrounded a central message: mental health advocacy succeeds when it is rounded in power, history, and lived reality - not only in technical solutions. Across sessions, speakers consistently argued that mental health is shaped by structural inequities (colonisation, institutional racism, criminalisation, stigma, and economic exclusion), and that advocacy must therefore be designed as a systems and justice project, rooted in coalition building and integrated collaborations. 

This report brings together key take-away messages for advocates, decision-makers, and people working in the global mental health sector more broadly.