Mental health community services

Key points

The EESC:

• believes in the promotion of mental health literacy for the whole of society to fight stigma and for an early intervention and diagnosis of mental health conditions;
• considers that policies should aim for an integrated mental health system based on cooperation among the sectors of education, employment, social care and mental health care;
• believes that empowerment and support for self-representation are the key to ensuring the full participation of people and to co-producing strategies and programmes. This should be accompanied by technical and financial support for forms of self-management;
• encourages the Member States, local communities, professionals, civil society organisations (including the social partners) and all state and non-state actors to build an ecosystem of community-based services to support people across Europe who experience mental suffering. This ecosystem should be based on a human rights model and on the dignity of the person. hospitalisations in psychiatric hospitals should be reduced, coercive practices abolished, stigma fought and personalized practices replace segregating services;
• believes that the ecosystem should be based on precise guidelines: the personal budget as a driver of spending by states and communities; diagnostic and treatment services as close as possible to the person’s place of residence,; the person’s right to choose to be able to live in non-segregating settings, which never exceed 3-5 beds; employment, education and lifelong learning services that adopt adequate and personalised strategies; professionals with adequate training, h; and peer counselling services Establishing clear guidelines is fundamental for reference standards to be determined;
• is convinced that it is necessary to acquire disaggregated data and economic statistics to facilitate national and community planning;
• believes that investments need to be made at all levels to support a community-based approach and proceed with deinstitutionalisation;
• calls for the European and international institutions, Member States, local communities and organised civil society (including the social partners) to take urgent steps forward to organise the transition, giving the role of protagonists to the people who experience mental suffering and the organisations that represent them.