The Final Conference of the Joint Action on Mental Health and Wellbeing was held on the 21-22nd January 2016 at the Flemish Parliament building in the centre of Brussels.
Mary Baker, President of EBC 2010-2013, chaired a panel on ‘Future challenges in Mental Health: the perspective of international and professional organisations.’
Since the Joint Action started in February 2013, national and European working groups, integrating representatives of Member States and other stakeholders (from users and families to health professionals, representatives of other sectors, NGO´s and other international organizations) produced comprehensive reports, including the analysis of the mental health situation in Europe and policy recommendations for each of the five specific areas of the JA – mental health in all policies, mental health in schools, mental health at the workplace, prevention of depression and suicide, towards community mental health care.
Based on these reports a consensus-based, integrated Framework for Action on Mental Health and Wellbeing was elaborated through a large consultation process that involved the Governmental Experts.
The Final Conference included the discussion of the main results of the Joint Action as well as the different aspects of the Framework for Action implementation.