Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-344"
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"en.20060905.27.2-344"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Europe has few powers in the field of public health, and that is how it should stay, for health is primarily a responsibility of the Member States.
Europe does have a very important complementary role to play: common research policy where health occupies an important place and a public health action programme that aims to improve the quality of care and treatment methods by exchanging data, by bundling expertise and by allowing countries to learn from one another.
Since this approach is particularly promising in the area of mental health, Commissioner, I welcome the Green Paper. I am also indebted to Mr Bowis for his commitment and involvement in this. He has written an excellent report.
It has been said several times this evening that one in four Europeans, or one hundred million of us, experience a bout of serious illness at least once in their lives. That is tragic and also accounts for 3 to 4% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Mental health problems cover a multitude of things and can range from eating disorders in girls or young women, alcoholism, drug addiction, through to behavioural problems, depression, as well as other psychiatric illnesses. It is difficult to develop successful treatment methods for those illnesses. Take drug addiction. What is the best way of overcoming addiction? Is it medicines, methadone, talking therapy, or a Narconon programme that involves saunas and vitamins? A serious comparison of the success of the different recovery methods would be useful. Or take eating disorders and depression: there are success stories, but just as many failures.
What matters is that expertise is combined, that practitioners learn from one another, that patients or addicts gain awareness of successful treatment methods. In this sense, it is also useful to set up a European coordination-expertise group, in which patients, addicts and care institutions should all be involved. This should be turned into a kind of help desk with a website where one in four Europeans and their families can seek help when they suffer from mental health problems. That is when European cooperation comes into its own."@en1
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