ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will convene domestic and international health leaders on Oct. 1-2 to advance a national mental health policy aimed at expanding community care and preparing services for climate-related disasters, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The meeting in Islamabad is expected to culminate in the adoption of an Islamabad Declaration on Mental Health, outlining priorities for financing, workforce development and the integration of services into primary health care, schools and disaster preparedness.

The government is developing its National Mental Health Policy 2026–35 in consultation with provincial and regional authorities. The summit will serve as a platform for translating the proposed national framework into actions that can be implemented across the country, the health ministry said.

More than 80 percent of people with a diagnosable mental illness receive no formal care in a given year, according to ministry figures. Mental disorders are also the country’s leading cause of years lived with disability, while services remain concentrated in urban tertiary hospitals.

“Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination will host the Pakistan Global Mental Health Summit 2026 on 1–2 October 2026 ... in conjunction with World Mental Health Day 2026,” the health ministry said in a statement.

“The Summit will be convened under the theme ‘Building Climate-Resilient and Future-Ready Mental Health Systems for Children, Young People and Communities’ with the support of lead development partners.”

The summit will focus on child and adolescent mental health, suicide prevention, substance use, digital health services and the inclusion of psychological support in disaster-risk-reduction and climate-adaptation planning.

The government also plans to launch a South Asia child and adolescent mental health analysis at the meeting and seek partnerships with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, academic institutions, development organizations, philanthropists and overseas Pakistanis.

“For too long, mental health has been treated as a private difficulty rather than a public responsibility. The evidence no longer permits that,” Minister of State for National Health Services Dr. Malik Mukhtar Ahmad said in the statement announcing the summit.

“Mental illness is today the single leading cause of years lived with disability in this country. It is not at the margins of our health system, it is at its center, and our policy response must reflect that.”

Pakistan has approximately 500 psychiatrists and 200 clinical psychologists serving a population of more than 240 million, the ministry said. Around 1 percent of the country’s psychiatric beds are reserved for children and adolescents.

Between 10 and 16 percent of Pakistani adults are estimated to live with mild-to-moderate psychiatric conditions, with another 1–2 percent experiencing severe mental illness. The economic cost of mental illness was estimated at Rs617 billion ($2.2 billion) in 2020.

The government said repeated climate disasters had further strained the limited system. After the catastrophic 2022 floods affected approximately 33 million people, official assessments estimated that one in five residents of affected areas would require mental health care.

Baseline assessments in flood-hit communities found depression among 38 percent of people evaluated and anxiety among 20 percent, according to figures cited by the ministry.

“Pakistan has learned, at considerable cost, that floodwater recedes from the land long before it recedes from the mind,” Ahmad said. “Our children continue to carry it. A health system that claims to be future-ready must be ready for that.”