European Joint Action on Mental Health and Well-Being

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Up to 50 million European citizens are diagnosed with mental health problems. The improvement of Europeans’ mental health would support the realisation of the Europe 2020 targets. In this context, a Joint Action on Mental Health and Well-Being is being developed for 2013-2016 bringing together 49 partners from 28 EU Member States.

The Joint Action builds on the 2008 European Pact for Mental Health and Well-Being by establishing a process for structured cooperation involving the Member States, the European Union, relevant stakeholders and international organisations. Representing managers of public mental health services across social and health care, the European Social Network (ESN) is a prominent stakeholder in the Advisory Committee of the Joint Action and working closely with its members on the following 3 work packages (if you would also like to get involved, please see contact details below):

• Developing community-based and socially inclusive approaches


• Promoting cooperation across education, health and social sectors in mental illness prevention amongst children and adolescents


• Mainstreaming mental health in all policy areas

Mental health in schools

In April, partners met to discuss the work plan for the work package Mental health in schools led by ESN member, the Veneto region in Italy. Partners agreed on the following objectives:

• Promotion of optimal cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social functioning, including educational attainment across all sectors of education


• Prevention of mental illness and psycho-social distress across all sectors of education including early childhood education and care


• Improvement of cooperation between health, education, social and family authorities and NGO’s involved in the mental health and wellbeing of children

Partners also agreed on a proposal for the analysis of the situation and mapping the scientific evidence and practices in the participating countries.

Development of socially inclusive approaches

Also in April partners met to launch the work package Development of socially inclusive approaches led by Universidade Nova Lisboa, Portugal. At the meeting, partners agreed to:

• Establish national networks with representatives from regions, services, research and users with the aim to identify practices in specific countries


• Set up a group of experts that would act as advisers on the development of socially inclusive approaches in mental health.

Mental health in all policies

In June, partners started work on the Mental health in all policies (MHiAP) led by the Finnish Association for Mental Health. This is an innovative work package which aims to raise awareness of MHiAP, with many countries only now starting to look at the impacts of ill mental health in a broader perspective.

It was agreed that:

• Partners will look at public policies other than health (for example, employment, justice, education) at various governance levels


• A survey will be drafted and distributed across member states to identify strategies to include mental health considerations in all policies


• Policy makers will be the key audience for training/capacity building

The Lithuanian Presidency of the European Council is organising a conference in October where the European Social Network (ESN) will speak on local mental health services.