Mental health has become increasingly present on the EU policy agenda in recent years, especially when it comes to young people. According to the European Commission, nearly half of European youth aged 15-29 have unmet mental health needs, compared to 23% of adults – that’s set to change.

Around half of the mental health problems affecting adults have their onset during or before adolescence. To examine the impact and possible solutions of this ‘silent crisis’, the Z Zurich Foundation, together with Euractiv, organised a panel discussion on 8 April.

In 2023, the European Commission announced that, as of 2025, the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) will include additional data on mental health to ensure a stronger monitoring and assessment of progress on mental health across the EU.

A key factor, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and doubled mental health problems among 15- to 24-year-olds, leading to increased depression, anxiety and loneliness. Digital technology use in youth also amplified negative effects, including reduced social contact, social comparison, anxiety, self-esteem, cyberbullying and addiction to online gaming.

As the rise of social media and excessive screen time has had a huge impact on youth mental wellbeing, the European Commission has signalled its intention to launch an EU-wide inquiry into the broader impacts of social media on youth wellbeing.

Room for improvement

Kasia Jurczak, Head of Unit Combating Diseases, DG RTD, European Commission, explained: “The state of mental health in Europe at present, especially among the younger generation, has a lot of space for improvement. But I also want to say that the progress we have made in the last 20 years, working on mental health, has been great.”

Maria Walsh MEP has championed the creation of the newly established Mental Health Intergroup, raising the profile of mental health across the European Parliament. Even before the pandemic, one in two people experienced a mental health condition in their lifetime, explained Walsh.

However, the pandemic has only worsened this crisis, increasing distress, particularly among young people. Mental health must be treated with the same urgency as physical health, she stressed. “We need a comprehensive EU Mental Health Strategy that ensures all member states address these growing needs and implement robust policies that safeguard mental wellbeing,” she said.

Build on the previous mandate

Referring to her constituency in Ireland, she remarked: “Right now, the second leading cause of death is death by suicide. For 10 to 19-year-olds, one in two had experienced some form of mental health issue prior to the pandemic. And if you look at research coming from UK-based universities that did a lot of work around mental health support from the financial crash, it was approximately five years before they really started seeing their citizens come to the fore.”

“But as a policymaker, the problem for me is that mental health is not seen or deemed a competency of the European Union. Therefore, it falls into that grey area of, as a policymaker, what can I do? What can we make sure the Commission does? The former Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, built a brilliant platform during the last mandate, and we need to draw on that mantle,” she said:

Claudia Marinetti, Director, Mental Health Europe, explained that her organisation takes a psychosocial approach to mental health.

“It’s a mental health in all policies approach. It’s a human rights-based approach, and it’s a recovery approach when it comes to people who have mental health problems. So, the rights aspect is very important for us, the social inclusion aspect is very important to us, and also the destigmatising and tackling discrimination is very important to us,” she said.

She added, “When it comes to the political level, I think that we have seen changes. As well as the State of the Union address, we’ve had various Council conclusions on mental health. So the interest is there, the talk is there. Now the question is, are we talking in the right way about mental health?”

Brain health focus

“I am not sure that the narrative is there yet. For instance, I’m very pleased that there is more interest in terms of research, but there is a lot of focus on brain health. Brain health is important, but brain health is not mental health, and so we really need to move forward when it comes to the social, socio-economic, technological and environmental determinants of mental health, especially for young people,” said Marinetti.

Lana Par, Vice-President, European Students’ Union, agreed: “I think it’s important to know that it’s not just a personal struggle. It’s a systemic issue, and it was escalating even before the pandemic. Students across Europe were facing increasing levels of anxiety, stress and burnout. So, COVID didn’t create the crisis, but it exposed it and amplified it. That’s why we believe that mental wellbeing must be seen as a fundamental right, not a luxury, which means going beyond short-term fixes.”

Cross-country collaboration

“Here we see that the EU has a unique opportunity and responsibility to lead this shift through stronger funding mechanisms, cross-country collaboration and policy alignment. The EU can support member states and build inclusive, proactive mental health ecosystems, and we have seen promising initiatives across Europe, from low-threshold university counselling services to student-led peer support programmes, but those are often underfunded, fragmented and not accessible to all,” said Par.

Sarah Kline, CEO & Co-founder, United for Global Mental Health – the secretariat of the Global Mental Health Action Network which has over 6000 members in 170 countries – began her intervention with a concrete example: “We’re working with an initiative called the Being Initiative that’s been doing a survey of youth mental health in different countries including Romania. In Romania, some of the issues that were raised were around bullying and cyberbullying, around exposure to violence, but also the issue of family and stigma.”

“Some of the things that young people struggle with are actually how to talk within their own families about mental health and the support that they may or may not receive from their parents. We see a variety of different issues around the world,” she said.

Kline added: “During COVID in Europe, there was a lot of discussion about people being confined to their homes, what it meant to be in close proximity to your family. But in other countries where they didn’t have a lockdown, young people struggled a lot economically. Could they find a job? Could they find employment? That was a big concern during COVID.”

“So, different countries and different people have experienced mental health differently. In fact, it is young parents, teenage parents, who are at the greatest risk of mental ill health, which is really tragic, both for them, but also for, in the case of young women, their unborn child.”

Pregnancy and mental health

Kline remarked: “Women who have poor mental health during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to an underweight child, a child who could struggle with their development. So it’s so important to think of young people, not just as students – although that is extremely important – but also as people who are already in the economy, who are already working, or are parents.”

Silent epidemic

Finally, Gary Shaughnessy, Chair of the Z Zurich Foundation, summed it up: “We’re very used to talking about COVID as an epidemic, but we’ve got a silent epidemic here. Every community across this world is being affected by mental health issues.”

“Every community is getting the same issues that Maria talked about in terms of suicide rates, self-harm rates, people’s livelihoods and futures destroyed because of our failure to adopt a structure and strategy that can resolve it”

“We are making progress. I totally agree, but it’s metre by metre, and it needs to be kilometre by kilometre.”

He noted that prevention works financially, and it works societally, and yet very little is spent on prevention.

Shaughnessy said: “We know that we’re failing our youth today from another angle – half of those surveyed say that the current system doesn’t meet their needs. That’s double the level of people who gave that response who were in the adult population, and that has to change.

“In an increasingly volatile geopolitical context, economic uncertainties and the rise of new agents of change, such as AI, the youth mental health crisis will only deepen without bold action today. The silent crisis of mental health deterioration is a pressing issue that demands urgent attention.”

“Prevention stands as the most effective shield, safeguarding individuals, economies and societies alike. We urge all stakeholders to elevate mental wellbeing to a top priority, especially focusing on the youth, who are increasingly overwhelmed and despondent. Emphasising prevention and promotion initiatives is crucial for fostering a healthier present and future,” said Shaughnessy.

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]