May is Mental Health Month: Collaborative Advocacy in Action

Mental Health Awareness Month was founded in 1949 by Mental Health America.  The theme this year is, More Good Days, Together, and is meant to encourage reflection, with particular attention to what a “good” day looks like, both for ourselves, and for our communities. In the spirit of this theme, the Global Alliance is highlighting key advocacy moments that recognize our accomplishments to date in 2026:

International Advocacy:

• Mental health and well-being for all was included as a critical component within the Health Declaration for G7 leaders, and for the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC) due to the interventions and leadership of the Global Alliance advocating for this messaging.  Recommended language including attention and action across the life course, consistent with the continuum of health (from promotion and prevention through to recovery),  and for mental health and well-being to be considered within and across all systems and settings [not solely health systems] were other critical elements that the Global Alliance successfully advocated for to ensure their inclusion into the Declaration.

Background: The Global Alliance is a member of the Civil Society 7 (C7) and Civil Society 7- Health Working Group (C7HWG) which advise the G7.  The C7HWG meets regularly and is comprised of 300 global organizations that come together to discuss and collaboratively act on issues relating to health.  A top priority of this group is for civil society to inform the health ministers of the G7.  Broad advocacy can be challenging for civil society as organizational priorities differ significantly.  However, together, consensus recommendations have stronger impact for Health Ministers as their recommendations are received and supported as a collective voice from many more constituents.

Since January, the Global Alliance, with this group has also reviewed and commented on thematic briefs on nutrition and health, and women child and adolescent health.  For each, comments have focused on adding and/or strengthening language associated with the inclusion of mental health and/or well-being and foundational human rights language -reaching all-. Additionally, during the G7 development ministerial meeting (April 2026) health financing was on the agenda, which is a win, largely thanks to the advocacy led by this group and its members. The French development minister praised the multi-stakeholder mobilisation around this issue, including the role of civil society.

• The language ‘to improve mental health and well-being for all’ within the UN-NGO Major Groups position paper and the NGO Major Group Executive Summary for the 2026 High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in summer 2026, has been included into the draft document. These documents inform Member States and other stakeholders of key issues and are drafted annually.

Background: The UN- NGO Major Groups is recognized for their contributions in promoting sustainable development through their collective (and diverse) experience, expertise and capacity.  This is particularly important in the area of analysis, sharing of information and knowledge, promotion of dialogue and support of implementation of sustainable development.

• Advocating in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Civil Society Commission in regard to the importance of the role of civil society and its engagement in the new global health architecture.  Some of our participation has included activities around focused discussion and communications, surveys and online forums for institutionalizing the important role of civil society.

Ongoing commitments in this sphere, have also  included Global Alliance’s attendance and representation at international sessions, meetings and events on, Social Participation, Youth Voices at the Heart of Decision Making in Health, Health Architecture Reimagined (HEAR),  Civil Society Organizations Global Findings, Domestic Leadership in Health Financing, and the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Road to 2027 series in partnership with UHC 2030 and the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism.

Background: The Global Alliance has been a member of the WHO Civil Society Commission since 2025.  Together, the Commission fosters collaboration among civil society stakeholders who provide recommendations to support WHO on its engagement with civil society at global, regional and national levels to achieve health for all and the objectives of the WHO General Programme of Work.  Additionally, recommendations are geared toward accelerating the attainment of health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs).

National- Level Advocacy:

• Much of our national-level advocacy is completed in conjunction with the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG). Examples of issues that our collective advocacy has focused on include: mental health access and care;  student and youth mental health; suicide prevention; workforce well-being, and professional degree status and workforce sustainability.

Check out a full list of issue statements here.

Background: Together, member organizations of MHLG, suggest actions and strategies for strengthening existing systems with a focus on advancing federal policies.  Our goal is to work with like minded organizations, and make policy recommendations that will improve outcomes for individuals, families and their communities, within the current context. 

• In conjunction with the Addiction Science Defense Network (ASDN), National Prevention Science Coalition, and Drug Policy Alliance the Global Alliance endorsed the new national impact report Addiction Science Under Siege: The 2025 Impact of Federal Actions on Research, Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery.

Background: Its key findings show that abrupt grant terminations, workforce reductions across federal agencies, disruptions to data systems, and constraints on scientific independence have significantly weakened the infrastructure that supports evidence-based responses to addiction and overdose.   The report and dissemination activities have been focused on recommendations to stabilize infrastructure, safeguard peer review and data integrity and ensure federal policy remains grounded in scientific evidence.

• Finally, in conjunction with Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) and almost 400 organizations, the Global Alliance has endorsed the  PIF HUD MIXED STATUS SIGN ON Letter, as recommended by our Migrants and Displaced Persons (M& DP) Task Force.  It responds to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that was issued on February 19, 2026.  If finalized, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would deny federally subsidized housing to tens of thousands of families that include a person who is undocumented. The collective goal with this advocacy is to help people stay informed and take action to oppose this rule change.

What’s next: Our efforts are ongoing. Nationally, we continue the collaborative work to existing access and care, strengthen the behavioral health workforce, support efforts to strengthen services for under-represented populations and communities, and address the mental health issues of individuals, families and communities. We encourage everyone to consider the work of vote4mentalhealth.org to ensure candidates for your community are considering mental health.  Internationally, there are many key events on the horizon such as the C7 Summit, UN HLPF, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), UN High Level Meetings (HLMs) 2026, and UN HLM 2027 (UHC), where we will continue to advocate strongly for centering mental health and well-being (from promotion and prevention through to recovery) for all within and across all systems and settings.