{"id":87919,"date":"2026-03-11T16:08:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/what-the-european-union-is-doing-for-mental-health\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:08:52","slug":"wat-de-europese-unie-doet-voor-de-geestelijke-gezondheidszorg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wat-de-europese-unie-doet-voor-de-geestelijke-gezondheidszorg\/","title":{"rendered":"Wat de Europese Unie doet voor de geestelijke gezondheidszorg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by Luca Pons \u2013 Journalist, Fanpage.it<\/p>\n

The topic of mental health has also attracted political attention during the Covid-19 era. The pandemic has been challenging for many, and the number of difficult situations has increased. However, the reality is that even before 2020, approximately one in six people in the European Union suffered from mental health problems. And although in countries like Italy, measures in this regard are relatively limited (there is a limited-funded psychologist bonus<\/a> and little else<\/a> ), the cost of mental health problems to public coffers is significant: approximately 4% of European GDP, or \u20ac600 billion. For this reason, the EU has launched a research, aid, and funding program for a series of initiatives addressing citizens\u2019 psychological well-being.<\/p>\n

How many people have mental health problems in Europe?<\/h2>\n

In June 2023, the European Commission outlined the framework<\/a> for a \u201ccomprehensive approach to mental health.\u201d The thirty-page document described the European situation, with citizens experiencing \u201cunprecedented crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia\u2019s aggression in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and inflation,\u201d along with the \u201ctriple global crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution\u201d\u2014which is increasing anxiety, especially among young people\u2014and \u201cradical changes in the labor market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Above all, they highlighted the \u201ccost of inaction\u201d on mental health, in a continent where 7% of its inhabitants had already suffered from depression before the pandemic. Between 2022 and 2023, 46% of Europeans experienced at least one emotional or psychosocial problem<\/a> , and half of them did not seek help of any kind.<\/p>\n

European programmes for health, youth and employment<\/h2>\n

There are twenty main initiatives. The latest update released in October of last year stated that all were underway and some had already been completed, such as the one on suicide prevention. These initiatives range from \u201cmental health promotion\u201d to \u201csupport for people in vulnerable situations (e.g., migrants, the elderly, people affected by crises).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Union\u2019s primary goal is to complement the efforts of individual countries, which must nevertheless take the lead: this applies to financial and technical support for states seeking to improve their national healthcare systems and ensure a more \u201cintersectoral\u201d approach to mental health. But that\u2019s not all. Funded projects can also involve patient associations, healthcare professionals, and so on. There\u2019s also a dedicated network of NGOs, called Mental Health Europe, which coordinates stakeholders (although it excludes those with interests tied to the pharmaceutical or healthcare industries).<\/p>\n

Approximately \u20ac1.2 billion has been allocated to programs such as Horizon Europe, EU4Health, and Erasmus+. These funds are used to fund research projects, but also to develop public health and strengthen collaboration between countries. Erasmus+ is particularly relevant to young people, and a significant portion of the EU\u2019s efforts are directed at them. One initiative, for example, involves exchanging information with UNICEF to support organizations working with children; another involves developing common guidelines to protect young people\u2019s mental health online.<\/p>\n

Speaking of schools, the EU supports member states that train teachers and provide more tools to identify mental health problems and intervene early. In Italy, proposals to ensure the permanent presence of a psychologist in schools have long been discussed, although until now this has only been done on an experimental basis.<\/p>\n

The problem also affects the world of work. Therefore, support is planned for countries that implement measures to combat stress and burnout. Specific initiatives are also aimed at crime victims, young cancer survivors, and people displaced from Ukraine after the Russian invasion. In all these areas, efforts are being made to ensure maximum access to psychological support. Furthermore, the Commission is directly involved in collecting data to monitor the mental health situation in the EU on a regular and continuous basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article by Luca Pons \u2013 Journalist, Fanpage.it The topic of mental health has also attracted political attention during the Covid-19 era. The pandemic has been challenging for many, and the number of difficult situations has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":36555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[690,695],"tags":[25880,25881,13844,25882,6895,6842],"post_formats":[636],"coauthors":[3918],"class_list":["post-87919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualiteit","category-jeugd","tag-benessere","tag-eu4health","tag-giovani-nl","tag-salute-mentale","tag-ue-nl","tag-unione-europea-nl","post_formats-artikelen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87919"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87926,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87919\/revisions\/87926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87919"},{"taxonomy":"post_formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=87919"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=87919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}