The World Health Organization has released a new psychological self-help guide aimed at improving access to mental health care and helping countries scale evidence-based mental health support services.
The guide provides practical recommendations for implementing psychological self-help interventions that can be delivered independently or with support from trained non-specialists. According to WHO, these approaches can help address the growing global demand for mental health services, particularly in areas where access to mental health professionals is limited.
WHO noted that psychological self-help interventions have been shown to reduce symptoms of common mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and stress. The new resource is designed to help governments, health organizations, and humanitarian agencies integrate these interventions into existing health systems and community programmes.
The guide also supports the rollout of WHO-developed mental health tools such as Step-by-Step, a digital intervention for adults experiencing depression, and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress, a self-help stress management programme. Both interventions have been evaluated in clinical studies and are already being used in several countries.
By providing a structured framework for implementation, WHO hopes the new psychological self-help guide will strengthen mental health care services, expand access to support, and help close the global mental health treatment gap.
English