This study reports the findings from the Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19 conducted by partners of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth1 between April and May 2020. This was at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic had rapidly translated into an economic crisis.

This study reports the findings from the Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19 conducted by partners of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth between April and May 2020. This was at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic had rapidly translated into an economic crisis.

'Anxiety, panic attacks' among displaced Syrians highlight critical gaps in mental health support. Traumatic experiences in Syria have left children feeling ambiguous about returning home - even children who are desperate to go home suffer from anxiety and fear at the prospect.

The WHO European Region is projected to miss its targets for tobacco-use reduction by 2025.

It is a sad fact that mental illness is the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes for young people today. The impacts are manifold, affecting the individual, the economy and society more broadly.

A new report from the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study published by the WHO Regional Office for Europe on the health and social behaviours of schoolchildren aged 11, 13 and 15, from 45 countries, shows that adolescent mental well-being declined in many countries between 2014 and 2018.

Economic distress and social discontent will rise over the next 18 months unless world leaders, businesses and policy-makers work together to manage the fallout of the pandemic. As economies restart, there is an opportunity to embed greater societal equality and sustainability into the recovery, which would unleash a new era of prosperity.

Although the COVID-19 crisis is, in the first instance, a physical health crisis, it has the seeds of a major mental health crisis as well, if action is not taken. Good mental health is critical to the functioning of society at the best of times. It must be front and centre of every country’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.