Why lived experience matters in physiotherapy this World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2026 calls for people with lived experience of mental health conditions to help shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives. It’s a message with real relevance for physiotherapists and physical therapists, who have an important and often overlooked role in supporting mental health.

This year’s World Health Organization (WHO) theme for World Mental Health Day on 10 October is Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change. It recognises lived experience as a vital form of expertise, bringing knowledge and understanding that can’t be gained through professional training or research alone. People with lived experience can spot barriers that others miss and help make sure services respond to people’s actual needs and circumstances.

WHO points out that people are too often asked to share their stories but then left out of the decisions that follow. Meaningful engagement goes further than listening. It means giving people genuine opportunities to influence decisions, co-design services, strengthen peer-led approaches and challenge stigma. When this happens, mental health systems are more likely to become person-centred, rights-based and responsive to what people need.

There’s still a long way to go. Of the countries responding to the WHO Mental Health Atlas 2024 survey, only 37% had included people with lived experience in mental health training for primary healthcare workers, and 45% reported ongoing collaboration with people with lived experience in planning, delivering or monitoring services.

A key priority for many people with lived experience is the move away from long-stay psychiatric institutions towards community-based, person-centred care. Progress has been slow. Only around 1 in 10 countries have fully made this transition, and around half of reported psychiatric hospital admissions are involuntary. WHO will be launching practical guidance on deinstitutionalisation to support this shift.

Mental health isn’t usually the first thing people think of when they think of physiotherapy, but physiotherapists have a real role to play. Physiotherapy in mental health is a recognised specialist field, with physiotherapists working in inpatient and community mental health services around the world. Their work includes supporting people to become more physically active, using movement and body awareness approaches, and helping to manage the physical health conditions that so often accompany mental health conditions. That’s so important because people living with severe mental health conditions have a much shorter life expectancy than the general population, largely because of preventable physical health conditions and physiotherapists are well placed to help close that gap.

The overlap between mental and physical health also shows up in every setting, not just specialist services. Whether you work in musculoskeletal outpatients, neurological rehabilitation, cardiorespiratory care or persistent pain, many of the people you see will be living with anxiety, depression or other mental health conditions. And as care moves into communities, physiotherapists can help people stay active, move with confidence and take part in the community life that supports recovery.

This year’s theme is a useful prompt to reflect on your own practice, in mental health or otherwise. Do you treat the people you work with as experts in their own experience? Are their priorities shaping the goals you set together? Do you ask what has and hasn’t helped them in the past? And at a service level, are people with lived experience involved in how your service is designed and evaluated?

WHO has brought together a range of free resources to help you explore the theme further:

• Explore the World Mental Health Day 2026 campaign and resources on the WHO website

• Read the WHO framework for meaningful engagement

• Start the free WHO QualityRights e-training on mental health

If you’d like to build your knowledge of mental health in physiotherapy, you can explore the mental health content on Physiopedia. Physiopedia Plus members can also find a range of mental health courses to support their learning.

This World Mental Health Day, WHO is asking us to move from listening to action and build mental health systems with people who have lived experience, not simply for them. For physiotherapists, that starts in everyday practice. By recognising the expertise people bring about their own lives, working with them to set goals that matter and paying attention to mental and physical health together, you can help make care more person-centred wherever you work. Mental health may not be the first thing people associate with physiotherapy, but it’s an area where our profession has a great deal to offer. #WorldMentalHealthDay