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The IDDC Inclusive Health Task Group is working to ensure that health equity for persons with disabilities is recognised as a major global health challenge and prioritised in NCD and mental health policy to ensure comprehensive, inclusive, and effective health systems going forward.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including conditions such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, as well as mental health and neurological conditions, are a major cause of disability worldwide, accounting for 80 per cent of years lived with a disability globally, and 75 per cent in low- and middle-income countries.
At the same time, persons with disabilities experience higher rates of NCDs and worse health outcomes compared with the general population. These inequities result from unfair conditions that affect persons with disabilities disproportionally, including health system barriers, discrimination, social determinants of health and health-related risks factors.[1]
Persons with disabilities also experience higher rates of mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression due to the challenges and barriers they face, while persons with psychosocial disabilities are among those most at risk of discrimination and human rights violations when seeking mental health care and support or mainstream health services.
Despite the strong intersection between disability and NCDs, the impacts of disability-related health inequities on NCD indicators such as mortality and morbidity rates, and on risk factors and health systems have not been given enough attention in NCD policy, service provision or financing.
Action is needed at all levels to improve monitoring of and responses to NCD-related disabilities, the heightened risks of NCDs for persons with disabilities and the associated implications for health systems, health equity and health outcomes.
Urgent action is also needed to improve access to good quality, rights-based and person-centred community mental health services and address the widespread stigma, discrimination, coercion and other human rights abuses experienced by persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities both within and outside the health sector.
IDDC response to the zero draft of the Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) and Mental Health and Well-being
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IDDC has developed the below response to the zero draft of the Political declaration of the fourth high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being [link https://www.un.org/pga/wp-content/uploads/sites/109/2025/05/Zero-Draft-PD-on-NCDs-and-Mental-Health-13-May_.pdf].
Considering the strong interplay between NCDs and disability, our response urges Member States to ensure the political declaration better addresses the heightened risk of NCDs for persons with disabilities and the barriers they face to accessing rights-based NCD and mental health and psychosocial support services in the community. It calls for the declaration to include clear commitments to promote disability inclusion in all action on NCDs and mental health and psychosocial well-being, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The response includes specific recommendations for language to strengthen the political declaration, drawing on briefings from the International Disability Alliance (IDA), Sightsavers, HelpAge International and the World Rehabilitation Alliance, and based primarily on agreed language from relevant UN documents.
[1] WHO (2022), op cit., p.19