WHO pushes for community-based mental health care

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day 2026, the World Health Organization has urged governments to move beyond institutional care models in favor of community-based care.

The news currently comes from a single source — the World Health Organization’s statement, reported in Italy by ProMISalute — and no further independent confirmations beyond what was disseminated by the organization itself appear in the material gathered.

According to WHO, institutional care can involve isolation, restrictions on autonomy and, in some contexts, coercive practices and violations of the rights of those receiving care. The shift to community-based care models, the Organization specifies, does not simply mean reducing reliance on residential facilities: it requires quality services, adequate support and pathways that promote the autonomy, inclusion and social participation of the people involved.

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, WHO has also planned the publication of practical guidance on deinstitutionalization, designed to support national health systems in the transition toward care models other than residential ones.

WHO’s statement is part of a line of recommendations the Organization has been advancing for some time on the subject of mental health, here limited to indicating a shift in the organizational model of services, with no reference to specific therapies, medications or treatment protocols. The available text provides no details on implementation timelines nor on which countries have already begun deinstitutionalization processes in line with the Organization’s guidance, nor does it quantify the number of people currently cared for in residential facilities worldwide.

WHO’s guidance is part of a broader international debate on the rights of people with mental disorders, in which organizations and governments have for years discussed the balance between ensuring safety, resources available for community-based services, and patients’ right to autonomy. The statement released for World Mental Health Day does not address this balance in detail, confining itself to defining the recommended policy direction.

The only operational element announced for this World Mental Health Day remains WHO’s commitment to publish the new practical guidance on deinstitutionalization, aimed at national health systems.