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Unmet needs

Duration: 1 year (2025 – 2026)

Launching the Unmet Needs in Complex and Multiple Mental Health Project

On 10 December, GAMIAN-Europe launched a new project focused on one of the most urgent challenges in mental health care today: the unmet needs of people living with complex and multiple mental health conditions.

The Unmet Needs Project brings together lived experience, clinical insight, and research evidence. Together, these perspectives reveal where current systems fall short and how support can be enhanced for individuals who are too often overlooked.

Why unmet needs matter

The Unmet Needs Project focuses on three core areas.

First, a rapid literature review explores unmet needs across major mental health conditions. These include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, PTSD, and complex emotional needs.

Second, workshops with people who have lived experience and with mental health professionals capture the realities of navigating services. They also examine how unmet needs affect daily life and why coordinated care remains difficult to achieve.

Finally, a follow-up survey identifies what matters most when addressing unmet needs. It highlights priorities such as access and coordination of care, treatment and recovery, communication and relationships, and equity and personalisation.

Together, these elements provide a clear, practical, and evidence-informed picture of where change is most urgently needed.

Why this work is important

Unmet needs are not abstract system failures. They shape people’s daily lives, safety, well-being, and ability to recover. When care is not joined up, when people feel unheard, or when support ends too soon, the impact can last for years.

This project shows why services must move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches. It highlights the need for holistic, personalised, and recovery-focused care. It also underlines the importance of stronger communication between services, better access to peer and community support, and the full involvement of people with lived experience as equal partners.

A call to action

The Unmet Needs Project calls on health systems, professionals, policymakers, and communities to work together to close gaps in care and improve outcomes for people living with complex and multiple mental health conditions.

By sharing evidence, lived experience, and practical insight, the project supports more coordinated and accessible services, stronger recovery-oriented approaches, better recognition of social and economic factors, and greater involvement of people with lived experience in shaping real solutions.

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