Mental Health in a Changing Europe: Policy Brief

Mental Health in Europe

The burden of mental health issues is recognized as a global concern, affecting people of all ages, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. As Europe has been shaken with numerous crises of significant magnitude, known as polycrisis or permacrisis, the European Union (EU) has prioritised pandemics, climate change, digitalisation, socio-economic inequities, migration, conflict and socio-demographic transitions as the most critical threats to mental health in our times.

Mental health is influenced by socio-economic and environmental factors and by intersectionality (e.g., interrelated social inequities based on gender, age, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation). Therefore, mental health services require attention to structural and social determinants of mental health as well as personalized approaches. The focus in mental health policy, practice and research has largely been on providing clinical treatments to people with circumscribed mental health concerns. However, the magnitude of the mental health burden in Europe requires a focus on innovative and accessible approaches to prevent mental health concerns and promote positive aspects of mental health.

ADVANCE’s European-level analyses

In this context, the aim of the ADVANCE project is to produce guidance and methodologies for innovative, scalable mental health promotion and prevention initiatives addressing specific population groups. These specific (pre-selected) population groups include: youth affected by climate change in Germany; young people affected by socio-economic adversity in Lithuania; adults working in digitalized small and medium enterprises in the Netherlands; adults with a migrant background in Denmark, Finland, and Italy; and older adults in Switzerland.

The ADVANCE project sought to better understand the threats to mental health for these specific groups as a first step. Therefore, we carried out situational analyses in seven countries (read Annex - Synthesis of Desk Reviews). This policy brief is a product of those analyses, primarily intended to assist policy and decision makers in understanding how the current challenges of a transforming Europe affect the mental health of groups in vulnerable situations. It also offers recommendations on how to address gaps at the policy level while advocating for greater respect of human rights and addressing structural injustices.

Key findings

1. Current and emerging threats to mental health in Europe affect populations in vulnerable situations differently, depending on how new threats interact with the pre-existing challenges faced by each group.
2. Mental health promotion and prevention interventions can build on existing evidence-based practices. However, for these interventions to be effective, its design and implementation need to take into account the complex, interacting social inequities on the basis of age, gender, social status, socio-cultural identity, sexual orientation, disability, and exposure to human rights violations.
3. To be responsive to needs, interventions need to be closely tailored to populations with respect to socio-cultural context with an understanding of the structural factors that affect the mental health and access to care of people in vulnerable situations. This includes considering the stigma and discrimination that may be associated with mental health. 

Policy guidance and priority actions

The following key aspects should be considered by policymakers: