Estrella Durá: “Good mental health is essential for the well-being of individuals and society as a whole”.
The Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament has called for a European Mental Health Strategy to address and mitigate the problems arising from mental disorders, and to do so, it must focus on prevention in all life contexts, from education to employment. Estrella Durá MEP, Socialist rapporteur for the report on Mental Health and Labour Digitalisation, stressed that “Good mental health is a cross-cutting issue that has an impact on inclusion, growth, productivity, well-being, quality and sustainability of both our society and our economy.
“We call for a comprehensive, multi-sectoral strategy that is committed to preventive measures and ensures the adequate provision of quality mental health services, so that no person is marginalised or stigmatised,” he explained.
In this regard, MEPs argue that good mental health has a major impact on people’s physical health and quality of life; studies show that mental disorders are among the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2018, the European Commission already reported that there were 84 million people with mental health disorders on the continent.
Durá warned that “covid has exacerbated this problem and highlighted the importance of mental health for people’s wellbeing, but also the structural deficits in mental health care across Europe”.
She therefore stressed the need to lay the foundations for a global and ambitious strategy, “identifying first the systemic causes of poor mental health, such as poverty, substandard housing, unemployment, precarious employment, lack of social protection, socio-economic and territorial inequalities, and discrimination”.
“There is no time to lose. Europe must now take care of the mental health of its citizens or, in other words: urgently strengthen the welfare state. The higher the level of public investment, the greater our well-being and the better our physical and mental health,” said Durá.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)