Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-335"
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"en.20060905.27.2-335"2
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"Commissioner, you will allow me first of all to congratulate my colleague, Mr Bowis, who has done a remarkable piece of work on a particularly important subject that affects us all, since a quarter of all Europeans will have mental health problems during their lives, with all the considerable repercussions that these will involve for those close to them. I fear that this subject in reality affects everyone. Whoever we are, mental health affects us.
For a very long time, we have, however, closed our eyes to these evils. Poor mental health was supposedly just a difficult patch people went through, or not even that. These people felt stigmatised inasmuch as they had to keep their suffering secret. This oppressive silence ought no longer to exist nowadays. To dare to talk about mental health problems is already to have taken action. Talking about these illnesses is a first step towards curing most of them. To isolate people with mental health problems and to discriminate against them is like pointing a loaded pistol at their heads. I am thinking of the young man with a promising future whose life is suddenly turned upside down when, on reaching adulthood, he proves to be schizophrenic. This is distressing not only for him but also for his family. The number of suicide attempts ought to make us reflect on the importance of this problem. Moreover, a certain amount of crime is a result of the increase in certain types of mental health problem.
The ageing of our populations ought also to give us pause for thought as it is, unfortunately, accompanied by an increase in mental illness. We must take this phenomenon into account.
The European Union may develop its measures to prevent poor mental health, but it must also help researchers confront this phenomenon in order better to understand the factors that affect mental health, particularly during early childhood, to manage patients’ progress more effectively, to promote the most suitable medicines available and to support efforts directed at training health care professionals.
An adult is not cared for in the same way as a child or adolescent. We can also reflect on the various possible approaches to be adopted according to whether the patient concerned is a man or a woman. Nor let us forget the crucial role played by the doctor in monitoring the patient. Doctors sometimes feel very alone and ponder the whys and wherefores of forcing patients to take drugs or of locking them away.
Together with my fellow Members, I hope that the Commission will take this approach further and that it will return to us with proposals based on those for which we shall vote tomorrow. It is crucial that full importance be given to mental health in European health policy and that a different view be taken of mental illnesses, with people being accorded the respect and due dignity that any human being should inspire."@en1
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