Mental Health in Chile: How a Strained Society Is Making Us Sick

By Jazmín Aguilar, psychologist and Senate candidate for Valparaíso.-

On World Mental Health Day, I want to pause on a truth we often overlook: mental health does not begin in a clinic or with a prescription. It starts much earlier. It begins in how we live each day—in whether we have safe housing, stable work, the peace of sleeping knowing our children are well, the freedom to walk without fear, and the ability to look ahead without anxiety.

When those basic conditions are missing, the soul grows weary, spirits break, and the mind takes on hurts that may be invisible but are deeply felt. That is why mental health is not only an individual matter; it is also a mirror of the society we create.

In Chile, reality hits hard. According to the OECD, we rank among the countries with the highest levels of depression and antidepressant use, with suicides rising among both young people and older adults. Behind every statistic is a story, a family, a person who asked for help and was not heard in time.

Pretty campaigns and empathetic posts on social media are not enough. We need real public policy—funded, staffed, and present in every community. Mental health cannot depend on how much money someone has; it must rest on a national commitment that understands caring for people means protecting their emotional well-being.

Chile urgently needs a Comprehensive Mental Health Law—one that sees people across every stage of life and in every context. From children in schools who often face violence or anxiety, to older adults living with loneliness or neglect, the law should guarantee prevention, ongoing support, and dignity across workplaces, classrooms, and community spaces.

Mental health is not a privilege; it is a fundamental human right. As long as we treat emotional suffering as secondary or private, we will continue to fail—both as a State and as a society.

Today more than ever, we need an active State, engaged communities, and a compassionate society. Caring for mental health is caring for life. It means opening spaces for dialogue and recognizing that all of us, at some point, need support.

A country that cares, listens, and accompanies is a country that heals. And true healing does not start in a consultation room; it begins in how we choose to live and in how we choose to care for one another.

By Jazmín Aguilar, psychologist and Senate candidate for Valparaíso.-