Amornthep Sachamuneewongse

Mental health advocate and founder of Sati, a project that aims to help individuals with mental health and stress-related disorders.

“This year has been better than I could have imagined. I have lived with major depressive disorder and schizophrenia for the past four years and have twice attempted suicide. At my lowest point, I decided to work on a mental health project and become an advocate of such issues. This year has been such a great year in terms of creating awareness about mental health. More people have spoken up about it. My campaign idea, ‘Heart With Ears’ was also adopted as the national campaign by the Department of Mental Health in collaboration with the Let Me Hear You campaign of Miss World. I was able to travel to London, Prague and

Geneva to talk about and share my experience with mental health disorder and was selected as one of the 51 Global Shapers attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos.

There is still a lot to be done when it comes to mental health, in terms of educating people, creating awareness and destigmatisation. We also need leaders to understand that the old ways of running a country is not good for the country’s well-being anymore. As much as we talk about improving the economy, looking at the GDP only helps the top 1% who own 67% of our country’s wealth. We need to turn from a GDP-driven country to a well-being driven country. That is the only way to ensure that we are strong and able to solve the problems that come with being an ageing society. As many people advocate for clean energy and a greener planet, I am advocating for a more empathetic society. Nonetheless, it has been a great decade!”