Brussels, European Parliament – GAMIAN-Europe was represented at a high-level European Parliament meeting on brain and mental health policy. President Péter Kéri delivered a powerful intervention rooted in lived experience and the often invisible realities faced by families when mental illness enters their lives.

The event, “Headway – A New Roadmap in Brain Health: Focus Mental Health”. It was hosted by MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP, Czechia), Member of the European Parliament and representative of the Intergroup on Mental Health. It brought together policymakers, clinicians, researchers and civil society organisations to discuss the future of mental health and brain health across Europe.

Participants included Professor Celso Arango, Director of the Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health at Hospital Gregorio Marañón and President-elect of the European Psychiatric Association; Romina Boarini; Frédéric Destrebecq, Executive Director of the European Brain Council; and Chantel Fouché, alongside a wide range of European and international stakeholders active in mental health and wellbeing policy.

A lived-experience message to Europe’s policymakers

Speaking at the European Parliament, Péter Kéri deliberately moved away from technical discussions on protocols or care models. Instead, he spoke about what families and people with lived experience know intimately: what actually happens when mental illness suddenly enters a family.

He described a familiar pattern across Europe: one person begins to show symptoms, and within months the entire family is exhausted, reshaped and often treated as if they themselves were the patients. Parents and loved ones are gradually pushed into roles they were never meant to carry, becoming informal clinicians, case managers or “co-patients”.

“Parents and loved ones are not substitute clinicians. They are parents,” Kéri emphasised. “And treating them otherwise is not acceptable.”

He also addressed the dominant narrative that mental illness “originates in childhood”. Warning that when repeated without nuance, it can do significant harm. Such narratives, he explained, can create shame, invite self-blame, rewrite family histories retrospectively and push parents into a constant search for fault, rather than allowing families to remain families.

Kéri stressed that a parent’s role is not to analyse symptoms, deliver therapy or live inside the illness. It is to remain human. To love, to show up, to provide stability and to hold their child during moments of fear and distress, even when those fears may seem irrational to others.

Importantly, he highlighted a perspective that is rarely voiced in policy discussions. People living with mental health symptoms often want their families back as they were. They want mothers to be mothers, fathers to be fathers, and loved ones to remain stable anchors in their lives, not mirrors of despair or guilt.

When families are supported to stay whole, rather than being absorbed by the illness, they become one of the strongest protective factors for people living with mental health difficulties. When families collapse under the weight of responsibility, both caregivers and individuals with symptoms are placed at greater risk.

Aligning with the Headway roadmap on mental health

The discussion formed part of the broader Headway initiative, supported by Angelini Pharma and developed in collaboration with The European House – Ambrosetti. The Headway roadmap promotes a more integrated European approach to brain health and mental health care, linking health policy with social cohesion, productivity and sustainable growth within the wellbeing economy.

This year’s focus on caregivers closely aligns with GAMIAN-Europe’s long-standing advocacy for the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience and their families in mental health policy, service design and governance.

Building real organisations for families and lived experience voices

Looking ahead, we welcome the openness shown by European leaders and experts to strengthen collaboration with civil society. During the visit, President Kéri proposed future cooperation with Professor Andrea Fiorillo, President of the European Psychiatric Association, aimed at supporting the development of real, independent organisations for families, caregivers and people with lived experience across Europe.

“This is not about symbolic or decorative representation,” Kéri noted. “It is about building true voices, run by real people, particularly in countries where such organisations still do not exist.”

GAMIAN-Europe’s continued commitment

We remain committed to working with European institutions, mental health professionals and policymakers to help shape mental health systems that protect families, respect caregivers and centre the human beings living within those systems.

As momentum grows at the EU level, the organisation continues to advocate for a mental health approach that goes beyond clinical outcomes alone. It recognises dignity, lived experience and family integrity as essential components of sustainable care.

For more information on GAMIAN-Europe’s ongoing projects and initiatives, please follow its social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky and YouTube.

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