After the two-year implementation period of the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being, the European Commission and the involved stakeholders are looking into future actions to ensure mental health uptake at European and national level.
At the final thematic conference “Promoting Mental Health and Well-being in Workplaces” in March 2011, Berlin, a special session was organised to discuss the direction for the future and the process ahead, following on from the conclusions of each thematic meeting.
While the conferences had achieved their goal of raising awareness and starting the initial policy processes, a need to take the messages up and reach further to a larger and more inclusive group of stakeholders. Notably, a suggestion was made for a European-wide adoption of policy on key issues such as human rights of those with mental health problems.
Furthermore, a need for an implementation alliance and continuous communication was outlined. In terms of evidence and impacts, initiatives to improve mental health need to be evaluated, and Mental Health Impact Assessment (MHIA) needs to be carried out for all policies, including non-health sector policies.
The upcoming UN Summit on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) will focus on the main four NCDs, namely cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. Mental health has not been specifically included on the agenda. However, it is very much linked to all the NCDs mentioned, and shares many risk factors. The European Commission has been pushing for the inclusion of mental health in the UN NCD Summit.
The Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers has been planning its future activities in the field of mental health and well-being on the basis of the recent Council conclusions on the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being. A meeting of the Group of Governmental experts on mental health and well-being has been scheduled for September 2011.
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