In the face of imminent threats arising from climate change, commercial marketing of harmful products, and pervasive inequities, the new WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission makes a compelling ethical and economic case for investing in the world’s children. The Commission advocates for children to be at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for the protection of their health and rights. This agenda is essential and urgent to avoid mistakes that could cost a generation the chance to grow up safely, happily, and with abundant resources.

Crucially, the Commission recognises children and adolescents as active agents with rights to freedom of expression, dignity, and citizenship: decision makers in their own lives and in society at large. Integrating young people into decision making contributes to a more cohesive and egalitarian society, catalysing our ability to create a sustainable and healthy future

In this commentary we argue for the value of involving people with a diagnosis of mental health disorders and/or their caregivers as co-researchers in mental health research. We claim that co-production shares key ethical values with the citizen science approach, such as the acknowledgment of the right of citizens to manage their own care and the value of “expertise by experience.”

These values are especially important in a mental health context and should not be overlooked. Moreover, we argue that research collaborations involving people with a diagnosis of mental health disorders and/or their caregivers avoid certain important ethical challenges posed by some citizen science models, such as the need to develop a different model of ethical oversight