Unmet Needs

Introduction

Despite advances in mental health care, many individuals across Europe continue to face significant gaps in accessing the support they need. The Unmet Needs project addresses a reality that too many people living with mental health conditions know first-hand: support exists, but access doesn’t.
Unmet needs refer to the gap between the care an individual requires and the care they receive. This is a prominent and common issue in mental health care, and more so for those with complex needs, defined as co-occurring conditions spanning several mental health conditions such as depression, PTSD and personality disorders, and can also include physical health conditions.
The prevalence of complex needs is high. According to one analysis, 70% of people with a mental health condition have at least one other condition. Many of these needs go undetected and untreated, often due to structural barriers, fragmented services and limited resources. The core issue is that people are not receiving the care they need, not because treatments don’t exist, but because access, coordination and support systems are failing them.

Objectives

Launched on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2025, this project was designed to move beyond identifying the problem and towards actionable, patient-centred solutions. The timing was intentional: access to mental health care is a human rights issue, and those with complex and multiple needs are among the most underserved. Specifically, the project aimed to:

• Identify unmet complex needs with a focus on major mental health conditions, including major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and PTSD.
• Understand the day-to-day experiences of people living with unmet complex needs and how their conditions interact.
• Explore perspectives from both patients and clinicians regarding the challenges of accessing, receiving, and providing treatment and care.
• Identify solutions, practical and evidence-informed approaches to addressing unmet complex needs at the service, system, and community level.

Explore the full findings, recommendations, and patient perspectives in our report.