Highlights

 Introduction

• Following the consultation on the European Commission's Green Paper on Mental Health in June 2008, the EC-led “European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being” was launched at the High Level Conference “Together for Mental Health and Well-Being” by the European Commissioner for Health, Androulla Vassiliou, in cooperation with European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla.
• The Pact is an intersectoral statement on mental health action in Europe which aims to support and inform Member States and other stakeholders, promote best practice and encourage actions, to help address common challenges and tackle health inequalities. The Pact reflects the commitment of European Member States to a long-term process of exchange, cooperation and coordination on key challenges.
• The Pact is now in its implementation phase, which will be delivered around around 5 priority areas (Youth, Education and Mental Health; Prevention of Depression and Suicide; Mental Health and Older People; Promoting Social Inclusion and Combating Stigma, and Mental Health in Workplace Settings.
• The implementation phase is aimed at stimulating exchange and cooperation among stakeholders and policymakers, and facilitating the monitoring of trends and activities in Member States. The process will also result in the delivery of recommendations for policy and action at the European and Member State level.
• This phase will be facilitated, in part, through a series of Five Thematic Conferences in each of the priority areas, which will be hosted by Member States in partnership with European Commissions’ bodies and other stakeholders. The conferences so far held or planned to take place:
• 29 – 30 September 2009 . Thematic conference on Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being of Children and Adolescents – Swedish European Presidency event, Stockholm.
• 10 – 11 December 2009. Thematic Conference on Prevention of Suicide and Depression – Event hosted by the Hungarian Ministry of Health in Budapest.
• 19 – 20 April 2010. Thematic Conference on Mental Health and Older People – Spanish European Presidency event, Madrid.
• 8 - 9 November 2010. Thematic Conference on Promoting social inclusion and combating stigma for better health and wellbeing– Event hosted by Portuguese Ministry of Health in Lisbon.
• 3 – 4 March 2011. Thematic Conference on Mental Health in the Workplace – Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs and Ministry of Health in Germany, Berlin.

Launch of the Pact
The Pact was launched at a High-Level Conference on Mental Health that was held on 13th June 2008, led by Commissioner for Health, Ms Androulla Vassiliou, and Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Mr Vladimír Špidla, and with the presence of Commission President Barroso.

EU - institutions, Ministers of Health as well as Ministers and organizations from other sectors (e.g. Employment and Education) across EU Member States and international organizations participated in the event.  

Thematic Consensus papers
Four “Consensus papers”, a set of Policy Briefs and a research paper on Stigma and Social Exclusion were prepared as background to the High Level Conference.
These documents reflect the way action on mental health can contribute to mutual objectives across sectors and how the implementation of policy objectives can be strengthened. The papers focus on highlighting opportunities for evidence-based action, as demonstrated by research and practice.

The IMPACT Coordinating Consortium
In August 2009, the EC commissioned a tender contract to a consortium to coordinate the technical process for the preparation of the Thematic Conferences and development of the EU Compass Database.

The Consortium was led by:
Programme on Substance Abuse Health Department Government of Catalonia, Spain Dr. Joan Colom
In collaboration with:
Mental Health Programme. National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland Professor Kristian Wahlbeck
London School of Economics and Political Science LSE Enterprise, University of London United Kingdom Mr David McDaid
Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health Scotland, United Kingdom Mr Chris O’Sullivan
Research Institute of the Red Cross (FRK) Vienna, Austria. Mr Gert Lang