Implementing MENTal Health QuALITY Practices

ended

While mental ill-health has come to the forefront of public debate during the COVID-19 crisis, it has already been considered one of the leading causes of disability in Europe. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, at least one in six people across EU Member States experienced mental ill-health. This, together with the fact that persisting stigma prevents people from disclosing their mental health problems, means that the numbers are now likely to be higher than before 2020. Children and young people, migrants, people with disabilities, older persons and those living in difficult socio-economic conditions, are just a few examples of groups that are at risk of being, or are already being, disproportionately impacted by increasing mental ill-health before and during the pandemic. Whilst certain groups are more likely to bear an unequal burden, they are also less likely to receive tailored mental health support. Moreover, the pandemic has had a widespread impact on the mental wellbeing of healthcare workers and service providers, who have risen up to the unprecedented demands imposed by the crisis. There is an immediate need to implement good practices to support positive mental health and well-being for all and to build resilience within the health and social care services. MENTALITY will pilot established European promising practices targeted at children, healthcare and other care workers, people with pre-existing mental health problems and psychosocial disabilities, migrants, and service providers. The project will establish a path for successful and sustainable transfer and adaptation of practices in participating countries that will also lead for in-country upscale and further future implementation in other EU countries. Capacity building activities and material will be made available to support this. An EU-wide awareness-raising campaign will be carried out at the same to break a major barrier to mental health support: stigma and discrimination.