World Mental Health Day 2010 again focuses our minds on the need to continue the integration between the mind and body through active advocacy, education and reorientation of the way we see patients with mental disorders. Mental illness and physical health conditions are interwoven and fragmentation of services and overemphasis on specialisation has meant that patients often fall between the gaps. We therefore need to redouble our efforts in pulling resources together so that patients who suffer from mental illness do not die earlier than necessary.
The material provided by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) to support World Mental Health Day 2010 (www.wfmh.org/00WorldMentalHealthDay.htm) contains a variety of practical tools and fact sheets that are dedicated to the improvement of the health of those people who suffer from co‐morbid mental and physical health difficulties. It is available in a variety of languages including French, Hindi, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Many of the articles in this World Mental Health Day 2010 issue of Mental Health in Family Medicine are underpinned by the theme of integration of the mind–body connection and the Journal is grateful to all those who have contributed to this special issue. We are particularly grateful to Michelle Funk from the WHO and Elena Berger from WFMH for their editorial support.