Subject: Mental health and young people
The subject of mental health one that is frequently neglected or treated as taboo. However, the Covid- 19 pandemic has exposed or created various mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, phobias, depression, feelings of loneliness, etc. Young people and children have not been left unaffected by these. Given their impressionable age, they may often experience such feelings much more intensely and find themselves unable to cope with them.
It is therefore necessary for the education system to provide effective and practical support at school for young children struggling with such problems by helping them to understand that psychological and mental health issues and recourse to professional assistance where necessary should not be taboo subjects.
In view of this:
1. What is the situation in the Member States, especially Greece, with regard to mental health support programmes in primary and secondary education?
2. Does it plan to promote, improve and fund such programmes at school in the Member States?
3. What other measures will it take to ensure better mental health support services for pupils?
Answer given by Ms Gabriel on behalf of the European Commission
(13 July 2022)
Mental health of children and young people has become a major issue in Europe. An estimated 9 million adolescents aged 10‐19 in Europe live with a mental disorder; anxiety and depression accounting for the majority of cases (1). Half of all mental health problems in adulthood have their onset during or before adolescence (2).
Several Member States develop programmes and policies for addressing mental health and well-being at school. In Greece ‘Skills Labs’ action was introduced in 2020 in the pre-primary, primary and lower secondary curricula, promoting non-violent behaviour as well as mental and emotional health.
Also, during the pandemic, the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs recruited 2 800 psychologists and social workers and introduced a ‘Counsellor of School Life’ in every school.
The EU4Health programme will support the mental health of children, young people and their families via best practice transfer. Also contributing to the European Year of Youth, two calls for proposals to this effect (3) (with an EU budget of EUR 4 million each) closed on 25 May 2022.
In the frame of the European Education Area, the Commission is proposing two new initiatives to promote well-being at school: ‘Pathways to School Success’ will have well-being and mental health as key elements.
The proposal accompanied by a Staff Working Document will include data on current challenges, examples of policies, and best practices on well-being and mental health at school and an Expert Group, to be established in 2022, promoting supportive learning environments and well-being at school will propose policy suggestions in this field.
⋅1∙ https://www.unicef.org/media/108121/file/SOWC-2021-Europe-regional-brief.pdf
⋅2∙ WHO Regional Office for Europe (2018). Adolescent mental health in the European Region. WHO, Denmark. Available at:
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/383891/adolescent-mh-fs-eng.pdf ⋅3∙ EU4H-PJG EU4H Project Grants.