Why is public mental health being left behind?
One major reason is a lack of training. Across the globe, too few people are equipped with the knowledge and skills to apply public mental health principles in real-world settings. Leaders and workers across sectors (such as education, social care, public health, and even criminal justice) have roles to play in preventing mental illness and promoting mental well-being. But without training, they lack the knowledge to take action.
Public mental health training gives professionals the know-how to assess population needs, design effective programmes, and make evidence-informed decisions. However, awareness of available public mental health training (and who it is intended for) remains limited. To address this, we conducted an electronic search to identify examples of public mental health training available around the world.
We found that public mental health training remains limited globally. Where it does exist, it is delivered in a range of formats (some face-to-face, others entirely online). We found more training opportunities in high-income countries than in low- and middle-income countries. Some courses were free, but most charged fees. Some programmes were designed specifically for mental health or healthcare professionals, while others welcomed people from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.
One striking gap? Evaluation. Most training courses did not provide much information on their outcomes or impact, making it difficult to know what public mental health training is working and where improvements are needed.
So, what should public mental health training include?
Public mental health training should include:
- The scale and impact of mental disorders worldwide
- Risk and protective factors (and how these vary across populations)
- Effective interventions and their economic value
- Needs assessment skills for shaping local or national policies
- Strategies for scaling up interventions
- Communication and leadership skills
These areas don’t just provide knowledge, they enable action.
This kind of training doesn’t belong only in medical schools or mental health services. Public mental health education needs to reach beyond the health sector. For example, if teachers (understand how to) recognise early signs of distress in students, or employers (know how to) create mentally healthy workplaces, we would be taking steps to improve mental well-being across the population.
By bringing together professionals across sectors, such training can foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and strengthen our collective ability to tackle the public mental health gap.
So, where do we go from here?
This article presents a range of public mental health training examples from across the world. We hope it is useful for those looking to enrol, as well as for those aiming to develop or improve their own programmes.
Training should also be adapted to local and cultural contexts. An approach that succeeds in one country might fail in another. There is no universal fix. That is why local voices and leaders must be part of any curriculum development and delivery.
Scaling up public mental health training will require coordinated action at both global and local levels, commitment from leaders, and ongoing monitoring to ensure the training is making a difference.
If we truly want to improve mental health, promote well-being, and create stronger societies, we must commit to public mental health training. Not someday – now (!)
If you work in education, policy, healthcare, or any sector that touches people’s lives (which is most sectors!), consider what part you can play in advocating for or delivering this kind of training.
To those in a position to influence public mental health education: your engagement is crucial. Because closing the gap starts with all of us.
Pinto da Costa, M., Mulcahy, C., & Campion, J. (2025). The case for global public mental health training. BJPsych Advances, 1–3. doi:10.1192/bja.2025.10127