World Mental Health Day, observed annually on October 10th, is a global call to expand mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), especially in times of crisis. The 2025 theme, “Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies” underscores the critical need to reach people affected by conflict, disaster, and displacement.
Amid growing global needs, some countries are taking proactive steps to build inclusive, community-based mental health systems. Georgia stands as a powerful example, where a Czech Challenge Fund-supported project has pioneered a peer support model that empowers individuals with lived mental health experience to guide others on their recovery journeys.
Building Local Capacity and Reducing Stigma
From 2022 to 2025, the Czech Centre for Mental Health Care Development (CMHCD) and the Georgian NGO Partnership for Equal Rights (PER), with support from UNDP and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Georgia, transformed peer support from a pilot concept into a nationally recognized practice.
Leveraging Czech expertise in mental health system reform, the project built a sustainable foundation for recovery-oriented care. Key achievements include:
- Creating a National Standard: Developing and adapting a national standard for peer work from international models.
- Training a Pioneer Cohort: Certifying Georgia’s first 24 qualified peer support workers.
- Ensuring Sustainability: Providing methodological support to six mental health services to sustain peer employment.
- Fostering a Professional Network: Establishing a national platform uniting 16 peer workers and professionals for ongoing training and advocacy.
- Broadening Impact: Engaging over 50 practitioners in workshops on recovery-oriented care.
From Pilot to Sustainable Practice
This initiative directly advances Georgia’s Mental Health Strategy 2022-2030, which aims to expand community-based services and integrate peer work into at least 10% of mental health facilities. The project’s long-term impact is twofold: it empowers individuals with psychosocial disabilities by providing meaningful employment and actively reduces societal stigma.
This success builds on the Czech-UNDP Partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals, which connects Czech expertise with local priorities to advance innovation, inclusion, and community resilience. Since 2018, more than 40 Czech-Georgian partnerships have been implemented under this collaboration, contributing to stronger institutions and improved well-being.
A Model for the Future
As the world marks World Mental Health Day 2025, the lessons from Georgia highlight the power of local ownership, peer leadership, and international cooperation in improving mental health care.
Investing in mental health is not only about treatment- it’s about dignity, participation, and hope. Initiatives like this demonstrate that sustainable, inclusive support systems can be built even in challenging contexts when partnerships combine local commitment with international expertise.
Through the Challenge Fund and Expertise on Demand, the Czech-UNDP Partnership for SDGs brings innovative solutions from the Czech Republic’s private sector, NGOs, universities, state institutions, research centres and individuals to tackle specific developmental challenges in the priority countries. The implementation of projects and expertise is financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
