Engerer leads a Conference with European Commissioner Kyriakidis and Belgian Deputy PM De Sutter for a concrete plan on Mental Health

Member of the European Parliament Cyrus Engerer today led a conference in the European Parliament together with European Commissioner Stella Kyriakidis and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter focusing on a concrete plan at European level on Mental Health.

Engerer who is also the co-Preisdent of the Mental Health Europe coalition in the European Parliament organised the conference together with Tomaš Zdechovsky from the EPP.

“Following Covid, we are today faced with a not so different pandemic”, said Engerer at the opening of this conference. “Mental health, especially that of our young people, is under threat – this is made clear by the statistics from the World Health Organization.  One in seven young people suffer from some form of mental challenges. This means that thirteen percent of mental illnesses around the world, are being borne by our young people”, explained Engerer.

This conference saw interventions by the Commissioner for health and food safety, Stella Kyriakides, who spoke about the support that the European Commission is willing to give in this regard.  She made reference to the promise made by the Commission towards the end of 2022.  “This promise will be turned into concrete action” confirmed the Commissioner who announced the plan of the Commission for the upcoming year.

“In June we will see these promises put into words on paper – we will be launching the EU Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health”, explained Commissioner Kyriakides who thanked Engerer and his colleagues  in the Mental Health Coalition in the European Parliament for their valuable work.

Meanwhile, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra de Sutter spoke on the work that the upcoming Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be doing on mental health which will be focusing on Mental Health at the workplace. She also praised the work being done by Engerer and remarked that she looks forward to working together during the Belgian Presidency.

Engerer concluded that “everyone deserves a life away from the confines of anxiety, depression, PTSD, psychosis and any other mental challenges  that could take away their love for life”.  He said that “we need to make sure that every person feels comfortable seeking help – this can only be done if our campaigns encourage mental health literacy, including on the recognition of symptoms; while at the same time we need to make sure that we have more research being done on new ways to treat mental health challenges, like with the use of psychedelics”, concluded Engerer.

#MaltaDaily