Mental health: facing the challenges, building solutions

The Member States in the WHO European Region met at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Mental Health in Helsinki in January 2005 to tackle one of the major threats to the well-being of Europeans: the epidemic of psychosocial distress and mental ill health. These countries took mental health from the shadow of stigma and discrimination and brought it to the centre of the public health policy arena. By adopting the Mental Health Declaration and Action Plan for Europe, they set the course for mental health policy for the next 5-10 years.

Member States now face the challenge of acting on the principles of the Declaration and accomplishing the goals in the Action Plan's 12 areas of work. This book contributes to the achievement of this task by describing the current situation in the Region, presenting the texts of the Declaration and Action Plan, offering brief discussions of the areas of work (with examples of initiatives already underway in each) and describing WHO's plans to assist Member States in improving mental health in the European Region.

The commitments in the Declaration and the Action Plan are based on information and evidence from across the WHO European Region. Together, they form a solid and inspiring foundation on which governments, policy-makers and nongovernmental organizations, along with WHO, can build solutions to improve the quality of life of all citizens.