Ledia Lazëri

Regional Adviser for Mental Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe

Dr Ledia Lazëri has been the Regional Adviser for Mental Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe since May 2021. A native of Albania, she trained and worked as a psychiatrist in her home country, contributing to the education of medical students and later to the national reform of mental health policy and services. Having joined WHO in 2000, Dr Lazëri expanded her scope of work beyond the Balkans region through her work in the Mental Health Project of the Stability Pact in South Eastern Europe and later in Turkey, where she led a large EU-funded WHO project on improving services for people with disabilities. She served as the WHO Representative to various European countries, where she led the WHO technical cooperation. In her function as Regional Adviser, Dr Lazëri leads a team that brings together expertise in various areas: policy and services, rights and advocacy, communication and promotion in mental health, tasked, among others, with implementing the WHO European Framework for Action in Mental Health 2021-2025, supporting the pan-European Mental Health Coalition and contributing to the implementation of the EU Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health.