Global Brain Health Roadmap for Resource-Limited Regions

The global burden of neurological disorders accounts for 43% of all disease and 11 million people die each year from brain-related conditions.

This matters for practice and policy.

At the 27th World Congress of Neurology in Seoul, October 12-15, 2025, WHO unveiled a global roadmap for universal brain health.

The goal is universal access to brain health care, focusing on resource-limited regions where 70% of the burden sits.

This requires policy, service delivery, and information systems anchored in the SDG 3 (Sustainable Development Goal 3: good health and well-being target areas referenced) and SDG 4 framework.

It is not a feel-good plan.

It is a concrete attempt to shift funding, training, and delivery models in places that currently lack basic neurology care.

Neurological disorders account for 43% of global disease burden and kill 11 million people annually.

The distribution matters first: low- and middle-income regions carry 70% of that burden.

The roadmap calls for universal access and maps policy gaps, service fragmentation, and weak information systems that stall progress.

The plan targets gaps that prevent prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation when needed.

This matches UN views of health and education as interconnected levers for change.

The World Federation of Neurology (WFN) adds a practical counterweight to the policy push.

Their campaign, Brain Health for All Ages, stresses a community-first approach.

That resonates in clinics where a patient’s social context determines whether they seek care and adhere to treatment.

The WFN message is not vague.

It centers on accessibility, affordability, and trust, the three pillars that sustain a brain health program in under-resourced settings.

The Lancet piece accompanying the call to action reflects a consensus among leaders who know what it takes to move from policy to practice.

EAN‘s role is to translate this global framework into national and regional action.

With 48 national neurological societies collaborating on National Brain Plans, the European Academy of Neurology has outlined five pillars: global approach, policy, research, education, and awareness.

These pillars map onto the WHO roadmap, providing a blueprint for countries to adapt to their health systems.

It is not about copying Europe; it is about adopting a expandable, evidence-based model that fits budget constraints and workforce realities elsewhere.

What does this mean for hospitals, clinics, and community health workers?

The roadmap emphasizes integrated brain health strategies: prevention, treatment, care, and rehabilitation.

Prevention includes risk-factor management, stroke prevention, perinatal brain injury reduction, and early detection of neurodegenerative conditions.

Treatment includes key medicines, access to diagnostic tools, and trained professionals who can deliver timely interventions.

Care and rehabilitation focus on long-term support, caregiver training, and return-to-function programs.

The framing is important: it is not a one-off intervention; it is building a system that sustains brain health across the life course.

A key challenge remains investment.

The roadmap calls for increased funding and inter-agency collaboration.

That is difficult in health economies where neurology competes with infectious diseases, maternal health, and primary care.

But the numbers provide a call to action: 11 million deaths annually and 43% of disease burden.

If you are a funder (that is a target profile you cannot ignore).

If you are a policy maker, it is a cue to harmonize cross-sector action with education and social services.

WHO’s Intersectoral Global Action Plan (iGAP) is the vehicle for pushing cross-cutting work.

From a clinician-researcher standpoint, the emphasis on education and public awareness campaigns is not decorative.

These efforts create the social license to invest in brain health, build workforce capacity, and sustain patient involvement.

In Europe, the EAN framework includes five pillars, but nations can turn them into funding requests, national brain plans, and evaluation metrics.

The 2025 congress highlighted 2025-2027 as a transition period where pilot programs, data collection, and outcome tracking determine scale.

Public health impact is not abstract here.

The numbers translate into actions: train more neurologists and allied health professionals in LMICs, integrate brain health modules into medical education, and create data systems to capture head injury, stroke, epilepsy, dementia, and developmental disorders with consistent metrics.

The WHO Brain Health Unit leads technical work, but success rests on country-level execution, tailored to local outcomes and budget envelopes.

The plan hinges on inter-agency collaboration.

WHO coordinates with UN agencies, regional bodies, and non-governmental organizations to align funding streams, share best practices, and standardize monitoring.

It is a heavy lift, but the payoff is clearer care pathways and fewer patients slipping through cracks between departments.

Three figures stand out.

• First, 70% of the burden in LMICs is real and drives inequity in access to care.
• Second, 11 million deaths annually from neurological disorders signal a health crisis demanding national and global prioritization.
• Third, 43% of global disease burden is neurological, highlighting how brain health intersects with nearly every medical specialty and social outcome.

From here, what should readers take away?

First, health-system planning should embed brain health into universal health coverage discussions, not treat it as a specialty add-on.

Second, national plans should incorporate the EAN pillars and WHO roadmap into a single funding and implementation framework with clear markers and data dashboards.

Third, practitioners and researchers should push for standardized data collection, shared learning platforms, and expandable community-based interventions.

I would tell a policy team: map current brain health services, identify bottlenecks, workforce gaps, diagnostic delays, rehabilitation bottlenecks, and align with the five pillars.

Then draft a phased investment plan that matches SDG 3 and SDG 4, with a five-year horizon and quarterly markers.

For clinicians, push for training programs that produce mid-level providers who can manage common conditions and refer complex cases promptly.

For researchers, prioritize implementation studies that evaluate real-world outcomes, not just efficacy in trials.

If you are running a hospital network or a regional health program, ask these questions: Do we have an integrated brain health strategy across prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation? Are our health information systems capable of tracking neurological conditions across the care continuum? Do our public awareness campaigns reach underserved communities, and do they connect with primary care and schools? The answers will shape whether we move from planning to measurable impact.

I end with a practical illustration. A country could launch a two-year pilot in three districts, focusing on stroke prevention and acute care, plus a community-based rehabilitation program. The pilot would collect data on time-to-treatment, discharge outcomes, and caregiver burden. If it shows improvements in outcomes and reduced readmissions, scale it. If not, revise it. This is an iterative, data-informed approach that the roadmap calls for.

Key points to keep in view:

• Neurological disorders drive 43% of global disease burden and 11 million deaths annually.
• 70% of burden sits in LMICs; universal brain health requires resource-focused action.
• WHO’s roadmap links to SDG 3 and SDG 4, emphasizing policy, delivery, and iformation systems.
• Integrated brain health strategies span prevention, treatment, care, and rehabilitation.
• Investment and cross-agency collaboration are key; local implementation matters most.
• National Brain Plans under the EAN framework provide expandable templates for action.

Want to dig deeper? Read the WHO briefing on brain health, check the WFN’s Lancet piece, and review the EAN’s Brain Health Strategy. This is a global call to action, make brain health a universal reality.

What do you think? Can your region apply a expandable brain health plan this year? Leave a comment with your region and barriers. I hear you. If you’d like, explore more articles in this blog; you’ll find practical, data-informed pieces tying policy to practice.

Sara Morgan

Dr. Sara Morgan takes a close, critical look at recent developments in psychology and mental health, using her background as a psychologist. She used to work in academia, and now she digs into official data, calling out inconsistencies, missing info, and flawed methods—especially when they seem designed to prop up the mainstream psychological narrative. She is noted for her facility with words and her ability to “translate” complex psychological concepts and data into ideas we can all understand. It is common to see her pull evidence to systematically dismantle weak arguments and expose the reality behind the misconceptions.