In the Spotlight

World Mental Health Day October 10, 2021

Mental health care for all: let's make it a reality

Joint statement EFPA/RECOVER-E

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme from the WHO,  “Mental health care for all: let's make it a reality” is an important call for improving access to mental health care and for reducing mental health inequalities in Europe.

Covid-19 has disrupted mental healthcare at a time when, mental health services and outcomes are already not distributed equally within or between countries in Europe. The pandemic has however highlighted the importance of psychological well-being, and EFPA has called for the European Commission, in its  EU4Health programme, to ensure mental health is given parity with other health needs in terms of funding and provision.

Multidisciplinary Community Mental Health Teams

The WHO celebrates that some countries have found new ways of providing mental health care to their populations.  The RECOVER-E project, a European Commission HORIZON 2020 project in which  EFPA is a partner, is one example of an initiative contributing to changing this through supporting the development and evaluation of multidisciplinary Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs) in five sites in five countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Romania.

These countries are in the midst of reforming their mental health services in different ways, but have the shared aim to reduce gaps in receiving mental health support, by enabling care to be delivered in and around a person’s community, and focusing on recovery.

These multidisciplinary community mental health teams consist of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and peer workers (people with lived experience of a mental health issue). In particular, the role of social workers and peer workers in the team is important for addressing social and economic concerns of service users, and addressing not only mental health symptoms but emotional, psychological and social wellbeing as well.

The RECOVER-E project is proud to represent a network of partners with unwavering energy to deliver comprehensive support and care to individuals with severe mental illness, both prior to and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

RECOVER-E as a model

Capacity building efforts and involving key stakeholders that advocate for investment in mental health are necessary to sustain and improve community-based mental health care in the region. EFPA hopes that the work of RECOVER-E can act as a model that encourages similar peer and professional mental health support services to become available to all equally across Europe.Free webinar ‘Human Rights in Mental Health and the importance of the role of peer workers in mental health care’.

#recover_e

More information
https://www.recover-e.eu/
https://www.efpa.eu/activities/involvement-eu-projects

References 

[1] https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2021

[2] https://www.efpa.eu/world-health-day-efpa-calls-eu-make-eu4health-count-4mentalhealth2

[3] RECOVER-E = LaRge-scalE implemention of COmmunity-based mental health care for people with seVere and Enduring mental ill health in EuRopE

[4] https://www.efpa.eu/activities/involvement-eu-projects

[5] https://www.efpa.eu/event/recover-e-webinar-peer-workers-perspective-and-human-rights

See how our members celebrate World Mental health Day

Malta 

Today, the world draws attention to the importance of mental health by marking the Mental Health Day. The theme of the day this year is “Mental health care for all: let’s make it a reality”.Check out our website for this article with reflections on the challenges we face in terms of mental health in Malta, as well as some news on projects taking place elsewhere to make mental health care more accessible.

Read more 

Portugal 

“Mental Health Day: the 5 priority measures for Portugal to be a country with better psychological health"
10 October, 2021

On World Mental Health Day, the Portuguese Psychologists Association draws a picture of a country where 2 million and 300 thousand Portuguese need psychological support. It also presents 5 essential and urgent measures for Psychological health in Portugal.”

Read more 

Sweden 

The Swedish Psychological Association draws attention to World Mental Health Day with a filmed mini-lecture on minority stress and minority joy among young LGBTQ +.

The International World Health Day for Mental Health is celebrated around the world on 10 October. The Swedish Psychologists' Association celebrates the day with the film "Can the moon be affected by heterocide norms?", A mini-lecture on minority stress and minority joy among young LGBTQ +.

Read more 

Ukraine 

OCTOBER 10 - MENTAL HEALTH DAY:

LET'S DESTROY STEREOTYPES TOGETHER

October 10 is not a holiday, but a day on which we should draw attention to this topic and inform about the importance of maintaining mental health. Greetings, jokes and memes on this topic - all this should be distributed very carefully, because they can help in the formation of prejudices and stigmas about mental health and disorders.

Read more 

Members share the EFPA statement:

Croatia 

Greece 

First online edition of European Journal of Psychology Open now published !

Special Issue: Perspectives on the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 across the World (part1)

OPEN ACCESS: Start reading here 

First online edition of European Journal of Psychology Open now published

Special Issue: Perspectives on the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 across the World (part1).

OPEN ACCESS: Start reading here 

The European Journal of Psychology Open EJPO publishes innovative, original, high-quality empirical papers from all fields of psychology. As the name implies, the journal has a European orientation and aims to promote modern open science practices. It also aims to promote young talents: fresh, modern, open, progressive, innovative. The journal publishes full-length original articles and brief reports describing single studies.
The European Journal of Psychology Open is the official open access empirical journal of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA).

EJPO.eu

Editor: Prof. Georgia Panayiotou
Consultant Editor: Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff
Complete editorial board here 

17th European Congress of Psychology 2022 July 5-8, 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Notification of abstract acceptance: February 10, 2022
Early Registration & Active participants deadline: March 10, 2022

Subscribe here to stay updated on ECP2022 

Keynote speakers

Help us create the best programme and tell us:
Who would you like most to hear as a keynote speaker in Ljubljana?
And win free congress registration.

Vote online 