Mental health promotion policies in Europe

Abstract

There is little evidence that systematic mental health promotion (MHP) policies exist in the countries of the European Union (EU). In order to explore this, a sample of public health stakeholders in ten European regions was selected. Each region was asked to complete a postal questionnaire about structural indicators of those environmental factors that might have an impact on mental health; stakeholders were also provided with information on MHP concepts and strategies. Subsequently the regions were visited, and stakeholders were interviewed on their MHP policies using an open-ended questionnaire. It was found that there were no existing procedures or plans that could support the hope that systematic MHP policies would be developed in the next years in the EU. Only three of the ten regions had started to develop such policies. An 8-item questionnaire on the framework and process of MHP policy development was developed and used in the present study. This questionnaire may be auseful instrument in future studies on structural indicators of mental health.

Keywords:

• Comparative policy
• mental health promotion
• leadership
• interest groups

Acknowledgement

This project has been supported by the European Union's Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, contract number 2006131; www.mmhe.eu )

Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.