Mental health

Subject: Mental health

A survey recently carried out by the European Commission1 found that 46% of Europeans are experiencing emotional or psychosocial problems. As many as 89% of European citizens agree that promoting mental health is just as important as promoting physical health. According to the survey, 25% of Europeans say they, or a family member, have had problems accessing mental health services.

In Cyprus, there is a complete lack of statistical data to give an accurate picture of the state of the mental health sector. Furthermore, the only existing public hospital providing acute inpatient mental healthcare lacks treatment programmes.

Given the absence of such basic services, can the Commission answer the following:

1. How does it view the fact that no quality aftercare is being provided?

2. Why was a mental health service quality assessment never carried out by asking patients to rate the quality of the services they received?

3. How is the cohesion of EU-wide mental health policy monitored and maintained?

Submitted:11.12.2023

1 (https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-

life/european-health-union/comprehensive-approach-mental-health_en).

Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission (7 March 2024)

According to Article 168(7) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2), the responsibility for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care rests with the Member States.

The Commission supports Member State action. The communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health (3) includes 20 flagship initiatives and identifies EUR 1.23 billion in funding opportunities.

Those flagships include support from the World Health Organisation to Member States to build mental health service capacity and to integrate mental health across policies.

Further key flagship initiatives encompass gathering data on mental health and a multi-disciplinary training and exchange programme for mental health professionals.

The Joint Action ImpleMENTAL (4), which supports the reform of mental health systems, is being implemented in 17 Member States, including Cyprus. In 2023, a call for best practices (5) was launched and the proposals received are now being assessed for transfer between countries.

The 2023 Country Health Profiles (6) include a section on mental health to guide investments in Member States. A recent Eurobarometer survey (7) found the EU-wide share of respondents who rated the quality of mental health services as ‘poor’ in 2023 to be 7% (8).

The Commission regularly discusses the challenges and progress of mental health policies in the Member States at the subgroup on mental health (9) of the Public Health Expert Group (10).

1 ∙ ⸱ (https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-life/european-health-union/comprehensive-approach-

mental-health_en). 2 ∙ ⸱

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT&from=en 3 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-06/com_2023_298_1_act_en.pdf 4 ∙ ⸱ https://ja-implemental.eu/ 5 ∙ ⸱

https://health.ec.europa.eu/latest-updates/call-best-and-promising-practices-mental-health-2023-07-12_en 6 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/state-health-eu/country-health-profiles_en 7 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_4782 8 ∙ ⸱

https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-12/state_2023_synthesis-report_en.pdf 9 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/non-communicable-diseases/events_en?f%5B0%5D=topic_topic%3A203 10 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/non-communicable-diseases/expert-group-public-health_en