The UAE on Saturday celebrated World Mental Health Day amid the ongoing efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Every year, October 10 is observed as the United Nations' World Mental Health Day with the aim of promoting the significance of spreading awareness about mental health issues across the world and encourage international efforts to provide financial support to mental health care. In recent years, mental health care has become a crucial part of the public health system.

This year, World Mental Health Day is being celebrated at a time when the world has gone through massive changes in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic and its repercussions. The global pandemic crisis has imposed various challenges and difficulties not only in the healthcare sector but also in work, study and social relations. Therefore, there is an increased need for world governments and international organisations to extend more initiatives in the field of mental health and psychosocial support.

The UAE has prioritised the provision of psychological support to community members amid the efforts to contain the impact of Coronavirus.

"Don't Worry" campaign was launched by the UAE’s National Programme for Happiness and Wellbeing (NPHW) across the nation with the aim to provide free online mental health support to all UAE residents who are struggling with severe psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 50 experts in the fields of mental and social support, psychology, and life skills have become a part of the campaign over time.

Furthermore, the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources recently launched the ''Hayat'' Project to offer moral and psychological support to Federal Government employees as they continue to work during the challenging times. Under the project, government employees are provided with adequate mental health services by experts and consultants with the aim to increase their productivity and efficiency by mitigating the day-to-day challenges that they face.

In 2017, the UAE undertook the National Policy for the Promotion of Mental Health which helped in identifying key strategic objectives, including the need for improving the effectiveness of the leadership in the mental health field. Other objectives included the need for developing, strengthening and diversifying the scope of integrated, comprehensive, and needs-responsive mental health services for all age groups and communities. Furthermore, it is also essential to boost multi-sectoral cooperation to implement the Mental Health Promotion Policy across various sectors.

In 2019, the Ministry of Health and Prevention launched a range of digital solutions in the field of mental health and psychological support with the aim of improving clinical practices in the field. These initiatives were launched as part of the UAE government's framework to support an empower mental health patients through specially-curated awareness programmes in addition to training young doctors.

These digital solutions include employing virtual reality technology to understand schizophrenia in order to learn more about the suffering of patients due to the disease. There are other technologies for treating psychotic patients, youth with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), and victims of bullying. In addition, there is an innovative programme of cognitive behavioural therapy which will reportedly be evaluated after experimentations in primary schools.

WAM