Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has issued a powerful call for world leaders to elevate mental health to the forefront of the global development agenda, declaring it “the great invisible crisis of our time.”

Speaking to the 80th United Nations General Assembly, Browne warned that mental illness touches every nation and community but remains “hidden in silence, shrouded in stigma, and excluded from priority in global health.” He stressed, “We can no longer afford this neglect. Mental health is not a weakness. It is a matter of human rights, social justice, and sustainable development.”

Browne proposed a global vision built on three urgent priorities: normalizing mental wellness through education and awareness to dismantle stigma, ensuring universal access to care by equipping clinics, nurses and communities with the necessary tools, and fostering global solidarity by building cross-border partnerships between governments, civil society, the private sector and international institutions.

The Prime Minister tied the urgency of the issue to broader development concerns, pointing to children whose education suffers from untreated anxiety, workers whose productivity is diminished by depression, and families fractured by unspoken pain. “Mental health is a development issue, an economic issue, a security issue. Above all, it is a human issue,” he declared.

Browne pledged Antigua and Barbuda’s commitment to the cause, saying the country would share its experiences, learn from others, and champion the integration of mental health into every layer of development policy. “Our call to action is clear: treat mental health with the same urgency, investment, and compassion as physical health. No person, anywhere in the world, should be left to suffer in silence,” he said.

He closed his appeal with a moral charge to the international community. “Let this decade be the inflection point the moment when the world finally recognized that there can be no true human progress without mental wellness. Mental wellness is the people’s right.”