Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-18-Speech-3-307"
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"− Mr President, I congratulate the European Parliament and its rapporteur, Ms Tzampazi, on this own-initiative report on mental health. The report quite rightly underlines the great impact mental health has on general wellbeing, on education, on learning, and on social cohesion in the European Union.
We will seriously consider how we can best put such an idea into practice. Once again, I would like to thank Parliament and its rapporteur for this very supportive report and its very important recommendations.
The fact that Parliament is adopting this report only two years after a resolution responding to the Commission’s Green Paper on mental health signals the urgent need for more action in this field.
In my view, there is some reason for optimism. There is more awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing across all sectors, compared to a few years ago. This was evident from the great support for the Commission’s high-level conference ‘Together for mental health and wellbeing’ and the European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing, both of which were mentioned by the rapporteur.
Further positive developments include the fact that many Member States have revised their mental health strategies or are setting up action plans, for example, in Finland and Hungary. Socio-economic learning has been included in school curricula. In the United Kingdom, life issues are now a subject in their own right in many schools.
Employers are increasingly aware of the links between wellbeing and productivity. CSR Europe has even created a toolkit for wellbeing in the workplace. However, let us be clear. There can certainly be no reason for complacency, and much more remains to be done. There could be new risks for mental health as a result of the current financial and economic crisis. Member States could be tempted to reduce budgets for mental health or to reduce their efforts to build up modern mental health systems with community-based services instead of outdated asylums.
The economic downturn worsens the future prospects of young people, especially school leavers. Job insecurity in the workplace, and its ensuing concerns over the stability of incomes and rising levels of unemployment, create new major threats for mental health.
Over the next two years, the Commission will organise a series of thematic conferences on the five priorities of the mental health pact. These will be joint events with Council Presidencies and Member States. A first international conference on stigma and psychiatric care will be organised by the Czech Presidency on 29 May this year. The first thematic conference on mental health in youth and education will take place in Stockholm on 29-30 September, in cooperation with the Swedish Presidency. The second thematic conference on the prevention of depression and suicide will be organised with Hungary in December. In the first semester of 2010, the Spanish Presidency will host a thematic conference on the mental health of older people. Furthermore, we are in contact with Member States regarding two further conferences on mental health in workplace settings and on combating stigma and social exclusion.
Parliament’s report includes many concrete suggestions which constitute a valuable contribution to future debates in these conferences. The report not only highlights the relevance of mental health in the European Union, but also demonstrates that there are many opportunities to act in the area of mental health at European Union level.
One of the suggestions in the report is to set up a structure to oversee the implementation of the European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing. I agree that there would be significant added value in periodically reviewing progress against the objectives of the pact."@en1
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