The meeting of the European Parliament Interest Group on Mental Health, Wellbeing and Brain Disorders, entitled ‘New horizons for person-centred mental health research and care’, took place on 3 December in the European Parliament in Brussels, between 15.00 and 18.00 in room 5G1.

In recent years, issues related to mental health care and services have increasingly been part of EU and national research agendas. In parallel, the notion and importance of person-centred mental health services has gained ground.

There is general consensus on the crucial importance of this concept: all mental health stakeholders – e.g. patients, health care professionals, policymakers, care and service providers – agree that person-centredness is essential if appropriate. Effective  and high-quality mental health care services are to be developed and delivered. And indeed, a number of recent and current  EU-funded research projects explicitly take into account this perspective.

As the EU is about to embark on a new, comprehensive and large-scale research programme, the Interest Group, GAMIAN-Europe and the EPA believe that the time is ripe to organise a policy event with a specific focus on person-centred mental health research and care.

This event aimed to:

• underline the importance of person-centred mental health research and care and increase the visibility of this topic;
• exchange views on how a person-centred perspective can be ensured in EU funded and other research addressing mental health;
• inform about ongoing research focusing on mental health in a person-centred way;
• stimulate discussion amongst stakeholders and forge links for future cooperation;
• underline the importance for Horizon Europe to take person-centredness as a guiding principle for future EU-funded mental health research.

Thank you to all who joined us on that occasion so that we can make a strong case to ensure a meaningful place for person-centred mental health research and care at EU and national level.

Marian Harkin MEP                                 Hilkka Karkkainen                                      Silvana Galderisi
Nessa Childers MEP                               President GAMIAN-Europe                          President EPA
Cristian Busoi MEP
Jean Lambert MEP
Tomas Zdechovsky MEP