Age of Upheaval

The theme of World Mental Health Day 2025 — “Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies” — could not have been more apt. Around the world, crises are no longer exceptional events; they are the rhythm of daily life. Wars, disasters, and social unrest have become routine news. Yet amid this chaos, the most affected — children and young adults — remain the least heard and the least healed.

This truth hit close to home recently in Nepal, where the Gen Z protests exposed both a generation’s disillusionment and its psychological fragility. When thousands of young Nepalis poured into the streets in September, demanding accountability, transparency, and the right to free expression after the government banned 26 social media platforms, it was an eruption of pent-up frustration. What began as a digital rebellion quickly spiralled into violent confrontations, curfews, and a nationwide mental health reckoning.

Psychologists worldwide now report a spike in anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms among students and teenagers who witnessed the protests — many firsthand, others through the relentless feed of social media. For children, the experience has been bewildering: a loss of safety, a confusion about authority, and the haunting images of innocent peers being tear-gassed, and killed. When young people become both the agents and victims of unrest, the emotional cost is immeasurable.

This is where the 2025 theme acquires urgency. Emergencies are not limited to earthquakes or floods — they also include social and political breakdowns that tear through the psyche of a generation. Yet mental health services in such moments remain reactive, fragmented, and under-resourced. Schools rarely have counsellors, community health centres lack trained professionals, and stigma continues to silence those who most need to speak. In South Asia, where nearly half the population is under 25, this silence is dangerous.

The lesson from Nepal is unmistakable: mental health access must be embedded in every emergency response, not treated as an afterthought. Governments should deploy trauma-informed school programmes, youth helplines, and mobile counselling units. Social media, often blamed for distress, can also be harnessed responsibly to spread awareness and connect youth to help. Above all, young people must be made part of the solution — involved in designing policies that affect their emotional futures.

As the world marks Mental Health Day, the message must echo beyond ceremonies and hashtags: a society that fails to protect its young minds during crises will one day inherit their trauma. The time for token concern is over; access must become action.