Mental health is at a crossroads in Europe. Rising needs, persistent inequalities, and increasing pressure on health systems demand a stronger, more coordinated response—one that goes beyond care to include prevention, community support, and cross-sector collaboration.

This session explores how public health approaches can help address today’s mental health challenges, bringing together perspectives from policy, research, and lived experience. From strengthening partnerships to improving data and reducing stigma, the discussion will highlight how investment in mental health is essential for resilient and sustainable health systems.

The webinar also introduced a new capacity-building programme led by WHO Europe and EUPHA, designed to support public health professionals in advancing mental health across sectors.

Following this session, participants were invited to join a series of five thematic webinars, covering:

• Reducing stigma in mental health
• Advancing prevention research
• Intersectoral collaboration and good practices
• Integrating lived experience into practice
• Strengthening mental health data and surveillance

Join us to explore how we can turn knowledge into action—and build stronger, more inclusive mental health systems across Europe.

We know the burden of mental health in young people is high.

But evidence that is youth-specific and comparable across countries is very rare.

Mental health conditions (MHCs) in youth are a major and growing public health challenge. At the same time, no comprehensive picture of potential exposure factors of MHCs at societal, community, relationship and environmental level in the European Region exists. 

Moreover, a majority of MHCs emerge before the age of 24, while services and policies are ineffective in addressing them during that lifetime, remain fragmented or insufficiently connected to the lived realities of young people. 

The EARLY project was designed to respond to this gap to 

• improve the understanding of youth mental health, 
• identify modifiable exposure factors, and 
• develop a multicomponent intervention approach that goes beyond a medical model alone. 

For the first time, we – the EARLY consortium – presented robust, comprehensive data on youth mental health across the European Region, helping to move the discussion from assumption to evidence, and from debate to informed action.

In particular, EARLY is now in the position to share the first insights from the survey findings, offering new insights into determinants and patterns of youth mental health. 

Objectives

• Present new European evidence on youth mental health determinants
• Present youth perspectives on engagement in mental health research
• Showcase prevention & intervention opportunities for youth mental health
• Discuss the robust findings with a larger audience to inform the next phase of the project
• Share first results & exchange with youth participants

Speakers

• Prof. Dr. Jutta Lindert, UoA Emden/Leer, Germany
• Charlotte Marchandise, EUPHA Executive Director
• Prof. Marija Jevtic, UNS-MF, Serbia, “Full professor at University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, specialist in Hygiene and medical ecology (Public Health) at the Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, primarius. Prof. Jevtic will be accompanied by two students participating in the study: Tamara Stevanovic, student in the 6th year and Filip Kapor, student in the 5th year.
• Dr. Limor Adler, TAU, Israel, family physician and researcher in community health and primary care from Tel Aviv University.  The leader of the qualitative component of the EARLY study