Harnessing the power of the mental health and NCDs community: Creating a shared agenda on mental health to accelerate the global response

This session will explore mental health as a cross-cutting issue that impacts and influences other NCD-related care. It calls on actors in both the mental health and NCD communities to create learning spaces and encourage close collaboration. People living with mental health and multimorbidities face a complex burden: the impact of the condition itself and the damaging social consequences of stigma and discrimination. Participants will engage in interactive roundtable discussions to explore best practices and challenges related to health financing for mental health and NCDs, as well as building a mental health workforce for the future. This session will draw on the experiences, innovations and ideas of mental health and NCD champions to power up civil societies and communities. The goal is to strengthen collaboration and alignment of mental health advocacy more broadly across different NCD communities especially on the road to the 2025 High-Level Meeting on NCDs.