Local action, regional transformation: WHO Pan-European Mental Health Coalition to meet in Ankara

WHO/Europe is holding the second meeting of its Pan-European Mental Health Coalition on 23–24 November 2022 in Ankara, Türkiye, jointly hosted with the third Annual Conference on Social Inclusion of Persons with Mental Disabilities. Held in hybrid format, the conference will aim to leverage regional momentum and continue advocating for the necessary actions to improve mental health systems across the WHO European Region. 

Subtitled “Local action, regional transformation”, the second Coalition meeting is bringing together government representatives; professionals working at the local, national and regional levels; people living with mental health conditions; academics; and others, to share good practice examples in national contexts and continue the development of the Coalition’s key priority areas.

Across the 2 days, participants will explore how to implement reforms in:

• tackling stigma and discrimination and preparing leaders to champion reforms,
• building up the support of children, adolescents and young people in mental health systems,
• promoting healthy ageing, including dementia prevention, in older adults,
• developing workplaces that promote and protect mental health and well-being,
• protecting mental health in emergencies,
• ensuring that everyone can access good quality mental health services.

This year also marks the fourth year of the Social Inclusion of Persons with Mental Disabilities project, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Turkish government, with technical support from WHO. The second meeting of the Coalition is being jointly hosted with the third Annual Conference on Social Inclusion of Persons with Mental Disabilities, in order to highlight Türkiye’s success in making mental health services more community-based and recovery-oriented.

Pan-European Mental Health Coalition: local action, regional transformation

Mental health conditions are incredibly common, with around 1 in 6 people in the WHO European Region – or 155 million people – having a mental health condition. Mental ill health can affect anyone at any time and most people will experience it at some point in their lives; however, mental health systems remain under-resourced and fragmented and many people do not get adequate support for recovery. 

Mental health conditions remain one of the most stigmatized conditions, barring people from access to fundamental rights like employment and basic health services. Recent crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and the current cost-of-living crisis have further exacerbated these issues.

Since its launch in September 2021, the Coalition has supported countries throughout the European Region in addressing these and other challenges. With its first official meeting in May 2022, the Coalition started the process of implementing the objectives of the WHO European Framework for Action on Mental Health 2021–2025 by identifying key regional challenges, goals and actions for 5 of the Coalition working packages. 

Since the first meeting, the Coalition has expanded to over 200 members, supporters and observers who are all working to improve mental health systems in their respective contexts, such as by increasing people’s access to good quality mental health care in their community or helping people recovering from mental health conditions return to work. 

Bringing mental health services into the community in Türkiye

The 2-day meeting in Türkiye will showcase how these and many other local actions can inspire and motivate a collective response in other countries and parts of the European Region.

Mental health care has traditionally been provided through large-scale psychiatric institutions, which isolate people living with mental health conditions from their communities and perpetuate discrimination and human rights violations. 

Türkiye embarked on reforms to its mental health systems more than a decade ago. In 2005, it launched the National Mental Health Policy, followed by the first national mental health action plan covering 2011–2023. Its most recent project began in 2018: aiming to make mental health services more person-centred, recovery-oriented and community-based, the government of Türkiye, supported by the European Union, partnered with WHO/Europe to launch the Social Inclusion for Persons with Mental Disabilities project. 

At the third annual conference of this project, WHO/Europe will showcase the project’s many achievements over the past 4 years, including: 

• implementing a national model of community-based mental health and disability care services; 
• ensuring evidence-based policy-making, planning, implementation and regulation of services for people living with mental health conditions;
• training mental health workers in applying a person-centred approach to mental health and disability care.

Additionally, attendees will visit community centres around Ankara to see the transformation processes first-hand.