Mental health: Nessa Childers

Tackling depression should be a top priority for Europe’s policymakers, writes Nessa Childers.

Each year, more than 20 million Europeans of working age suffer from depression. The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will become the single most important illness in the EU by 2030.

The widespread prevalence and disabling impact of depression represents not only a tremendous public health challenge, but also a substantial and growing economic cost for society. The total annual tangible cost of depression alone in Europe was an estimated €118bn in 2004 and there are still many EU member states where depression and its costs are under-researched and under-recognised. There are also indirect costs due to loss of work days, not only for the person living with depression, but their family and carers. Last but not least, depression has a severe impact on the physical health of the person living with the illness.

Despite this documented disease burden, depression still does not receive the political attention it deserves. By initiating the European pact on mental health and wellbeing, the European commission has made a tremendous effort to raise awareness of mental health and depression and to bring all stakeholders together to address the issue.

Several key challenges remain across Europe, including a lack of awareness and insufficient collaboration among healthcare professionals, which often leads to insufficient diagnosis and inadequate treatment of depression. There is also stigmatisation of the disease which increases the reluctance of people affected to seek help, a lack of information about care for people with depression and their families and the need to identify and promote innovative treatment interventions to address unmet needs.

Last week, at the interest group meeting on mental health, wellbeing and the brain, the expert platform on mental health focussing on depression, which I co-chair, delivered a strong contribution to the depression debate by presenting key recommendations in support of the European pact for mental health and wellbeing.

The recommendations call on EU and national governments, healthcare professionals, medical experts and patients groups to promote a person-centric approach to depression and to deliver change for people living with depression. They say this can be achieved by: improving the early diagnosis of depression, streamlining the services available to persons living with depression; promoting the involvement of people living with depression as well as their families and carers in relevant decision-making processes; compiling existing data and promoting new research on depression.

This can be achieved by, for example, providing common guidelines and training for health professionals, promoting screening at the workplace and using innovative options in the management of people with depression, such as internet or phone-based therapy.

The interest group on mental health calls on the commission and member states to heed the call of the expert platform and other stakeholders and include its recommendations in the upcoming joint action on mental health, following the council conclusions on mental health under the Hungarian EU council presidency.

Having worked as a psychoanalyst for over 20 years in Ireland, I know first-hand the devastating effects of this disease. It is for this reason that I am personally calling on the upcoming Irish presidency to include depression as a political priority in its programme.

A society is measured by how we treat the most vulnerable among us. EU and national policymakers must ensure that people living with depression have the services and care they need to be healthy, full and functioning members of society. It is now time to act to make depression a thing of the past.

Nessa Childers is co-chair of parliament's interest group on mental health, wellbeing and the brain