The MEP Alliance for Mental Health and GAMIAN-Europe are organising a virtual meeting to discuss the aims, themes and content of a European Year for Mental Health.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the worst global crises in modern history, with many repercussions on health and health systems, personal and family well-being, as well as on jobs, livelihoods and the economy, and it has also put the spotlight on the crucial importance of mental health.

That is why we convene  this event now, to ensure awareness – with policymakers, service providers, the general public – of the importance of all aspects of mental health  ranging from prevention, to diagnosis, treatment, care and cure and their psychosocial and material determinants. They are prominent during these times of COVID-19 and will become even more so in a post-COVID future, posing further challenges.

Maria Walsh MEP, co-chair of the MEP Alliance for Mental Health, already briefly raised the need for and potential of such a European Year in October 2019. This idea was further elaborated in a meeting held in November 2020, where Alliance members and representatives from various mental health-related organisations discussed the desirability and feasibility of such a Year.

At this event, it was unanimously agreed that now would be the right time to launch an active campaign in order to turn this idea into reality.

It was also agreed that, in order for a future Year to be a success, a wide range of stakeholders, reaching beyond the mental health community, should be involved.

The event will have the following objectives:

• present and discuss the potential aims, content and strands of action of a European Year for Mental Health;
• discuss which actions should be taken to best advocate to ensure that such a Year will become a reality
• explore the roles that the various organisations can play in this campaign and in the Year.

Alex Agius Saliba MEP                                                              Hilka Kärkkäinen

Estrella Dura Ferrandis MEP                                                   President GAMIAN-Europe

Radka Maxova MEP

Maria Walsh MEP

Tomas Zdechovsky MEP