Europe needs a mental health strategy

Anyone, at any stage of life, can experience mental issues. Things might happen in life – personal events or global challenges - that turn our lives upside down and for which decent mental care may be appropriate.

Yet there is still a lack of openness about mental vulnerability and psychological disorders. 84 million people across the EU suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety and panic disorders and depression.

As mental health is an essential part of overall health and wellbeing, Renew Europe welcomes the adoption today in plenary of a report on mental health. With this report we champion openness and understanding about mental health issues, while calling for immediate action for a comprehensive European mental health strategy to better protect our citizens.

MEP Susana Solis Pérez (Ciudadanos, Spain) and Renew shadow rapporteur on this report said: “A comprehensive mental health strategy was urgently needed for the EU. Mental health pathologies are a silent pandemic that affects millions of people in Europe on a daily basis, a crisis that we could no longer ignore. We advocate for a mental health strategy with concrete targets and benchmarks. From the beginning we have been very clear about the key recommendations to be included in the report: attention to vulnerable groups, raising social awareness to combat stigma, increasing the number of staff with specific training through greater investment in public health and promoting research to collect solid data have been the key pieces of the strategy.”