Columbia-WHO Center for Global Mental Health

As one of the defining public health challenges of our time, the impact of climate change extends far beyond the physical. Around the world, climate-related events disrupt livelihoods, force displacement, and contribute to poor health and mortality, with disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Efforts to develop effective strategies all lead to one question: what makes someone vulnerable to climate change?

In our new publication for the Journal of Climate Change and Health, we introduce a novel instrument designed to assess the household impact of climate change across its numerous dimensions, the Climate Change Vulnerability and Impact (CCVI) Module.

Developed in collaboration with global experts, the CCVI Module serves as a supplement to WHO’s Flexible Interview for ICD-11 (FLII-11), which has been developed under the leadership of our Center, and can be administered in combination with population-level surveys to elucidate particular socio-ecological vulnerabilities, individual and community-level impacts of climate change, and associations with the development and maintenance of mental health conditions.

We are excited to share this piece, which reflects our ongoing commitment to examining structural drivers of mental health worldwide. Click the link below to read the article in full: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278226000325

Meet Dr. Hannah Zeilig, one of the co-authors of our new piece in World Psychiatry, "Towards a shared diagnostic process: whose diagnosis is it anyway?"

Dr. Zeilig is a Reader in Arts and Health at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. Her work brings together the arts, health, and lived experience, with a particular focus on dementia, mental health, and the cultural stories we tell about illness.

For years, she has collaborated with people living with dementia, artists, clinicians, and mental health service users to develop co-created practices that challenge how illness is framed. Through projects like With All, a co-created practice developed at the Wellcome "Created Out of Mind" hub, and Culture Box, a multisensory initiative supporting people living with dementia in care homes during the pandemic, Dr. Zeilig has built a career bridging art and lived experience.

This perspective has shaped her contribution to this paper. Across her career, Dr. Zeilig has seen how diagnoses can affect identity, relationships, and how a person makes sense of the world, and how diagnoses are often delivered without the listening that moment demands. Our piece aims to shift this dynamic.

Full publication: Hackmann, C., Zeilig, H., Kogan, C.S. and Reed, G.M. (2026), Towards a shared diagnostic process: whose diagnosis is it anyway?. World Psychiatry, 25: 321-322. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.70068

“People who overcome their sickness are champions,” declares Hammond, whose seizures started when he was just a baby.

We met Hammond during our recent visit to Ghana, when colleagues from BasicNeeds Ghana opened their doors to our delegation for a conversation about their work transforming the lives of individuals living with challenging and highly stigmatized conditions such as mental illness and epilepsy.

As a child, neither his mother nor healthcare providers understood the cause of Hammond’s seizures. Despite repeated hospital visits and years of trying different medications, little seemed to help, and his education was disrupted. Still, holding on to his mother’s faith, Hammond believed things would one day be better.

With time, and with the right kind of support, Hammond learned that flashing lights could trigger his seizures. He found a treatment regimen that worked for him, too. Hammond hasn’t had an episode in 15 years.

“Today, I’m free.”

Today, alongside other members of BasicNeeds Ghana, Hammond is helping others find that same sense of freedom. Faith, he explains, is central to his journey, but so is personal responsibility: to ourselves, by listening to care providers, following our treatment plans, and taking medication consistently when needed.

Perhaps just as important, this Mental Health Awareness Month, Hammond emphasizes the responsibility we have to one another:

“This sickness can affect anybody. All of us can be sick, so if you see your brother in a situation, you shouldn’t laugh at them; you should be close to them, talk to them. Little by little.”

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For clinicians, a diagnosis serves as an important tool in understanding and supporting individuals experiencing mental health challenges. But there has been much less attention to what the diagnostic process means for the person that receives the diagnosis.

This month in World Psychiatry, the top scientific journal in mental health, leading experts on mental health and lived experience, along with our Center Director, Dr. Geoffrey Reed, reflect on the personal significance of a diagnosis, harmonizing individual recovery and identity with clinical utility.

"It has long been recognized that mental health diagnoses can overshadow clinical understanding, but we argue that this can extend further, as internalized stigma can come to shape, constrain, or even dominate a person’s identity."

The authors suggests a philosophical repositioning that understands diagnosis as shared constructive process between clinician and service user that will better support the service user in relating to the diagnosis, sharing it with others, and considering its meaning for their relationships, functioning and identity over time.

Click here to access the full publication: https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.70068

Working with researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience, governments, and changemakers around the world, we have seen that awareness within one's community is often the first step toward individuals accessing mental health support🫂

That awareness is especially meaningful when it reflects people’s lived experiences, local realities, and cultural context.

For that reason, creating strong global communities where mental health can be openly discussed and addressed is a shared responsibility that doesn't start, or end, with institutions alone.

It begins with everyday actions that encourage conversations, support those around us, and reduce stigma.

Mental health matters everywhere, and expanding access to support requires continued collaboration, openness, and engagement from all of us💚

Global mental health remains dramatically underfunded. A $200B funding deficit continues to slow down efforts to close the mental health gap worldwide. As national and global priorities shift, securing financial support now takes more than a compelling idea--it requires strategy, precision, and creativity.

Researchers, program developers, and advocates are continuing to refine how they make a case for investment, from aligning with funder priorities to reframing mental health as an economic investment worth making.

With support from our collaborators, we are learning how a strong, well-crafted ask can open doors, unlock resources, and move a mission forward.

Preparing the next generation of mental health researchers, clinicians, and leaders is essential to meeting today's global mental health challenges. 🧠🌏

With too few providers and too many communities without access to care, we need strategies that are practical, sustainable, and rooted in community needs.

At our recent Convening, colleagues from The Gambia, Ghana, and the US, shared inspiring examples of community capacity building, task shifting, and investing in emerging professionals to strengthen mental health system around the world.

Swipe to see these efforts in action. 💪

🌐 On March 5, 2026, during our “Mental Health by Africa, for Africa” convening, we hosted a session on community engagement and the meaningful inclusion of people with lived experience in research. The meeting brought together inspiring leaders who shared their efforts to center communities and elevate lived experiences in their work.

Featuring speakers from the Slum and Rural Health Initiative, SRHIN (), MindFreedom Ghana, the Liberia Center for Outcome Research on Mental Health (LiCORMH)--led by our very own Global Mental Health Scholar, Sehwah Sonkarlay--and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), the session highlighted what it truly means to engage the people this work is for, offering real examples of how inclusive approaches can drive more impactful, equitable mental health solutions.

✨ Swipe to learn more about each!

🌍 On March 5, 2026, alongside colleagues from Ashesi University, the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ghana, and One Mind, we had the privilege of hosting “Mental Health by Africa, for Africa” — an invitational convening that brought together over 40 of the continent's leading mental health experts, innovators, and policymakers together with members of our Center’s International Advisory Board for a day of meaningful dialogue and collaboration.

We opened with a session on Africa-led innovations in mental health care, featuring speakers from the University of Ghana, Slum and Rural Health Initiative (SRHIN), Makerere University, and University of Botswana. Together, they shared four initiatives that leverage existing infrastructure and technology to reach people where they are.

✨ Read on to learn more about each initiative!

🇬🇭 From February 28 to March 8, we had the privilege of bringing members of our International Advisory Board–the philanthropic force behind our Center–to Ghana for a week of meaningful conversations and shared learning.

We knew that to truly understand global mental health we had to experience it together, on the ground and in community, with the individuals at the forefront of so many impactful initiatives. What followed was a week rooted in connection and driven by purpose: learning from mental health changemakers across Africa, engaging with public health leaders, and, most importantly, listening to the community at the heart of this work.

🌍 Our visit to Ghana was a powerful reminder that building a stronger, more connected global mental health ecosystem starts with showing up, listening, and learning together.