2024 EU4Health Work Programme: Discover new projects enhancing mental health across the EU

Mental health continues to be a significant public health challenge across Europe, with varied needs and gaps observed in illness prevention and management. As highlighted in a recent Eurobarometer survey (2023), 46% of EU citizens had an emotional or psychosocial problem in the 12 months before the survey. 54% of respondents with a mental health issue reported they did not receive help from a professional. 

New projects have recently started their work to enhance mental illness prevention and care in the EU, supported by EU funding through the 2024 EU4Health calls for proposals.

The Join Action (JA) PRISM aims to reduce mental illnesses in vulnerable groups, such as children and adolescents, older people, migrants and substance users. 

The project focuses on prevention as well as improving access to mental health treatment and services across Europe by supporting the transfer and roll-out of best and promising practices to new contexts. According to the priorities of involved EU countries, JA PRISM will facilitate the implementation of one of three practices focused on: 

• Suicide prevention (BIZI programme);
• Loneliness in elderly (Circle of Friends);
• Emotional wellbeing in children and young people (Act, Belong, Commit). 

REMESOS will evaluate mental health measurement tools to find the most appropriate way to assess mental health at the population level across Europe, while also implementing the Guided Functional Peer Support (GFP), a community intervention aiming at promoting mental health locally. For this purpose, REMESOS will: 

• Provide a feasible, replicable and informative way to monitor population mental health across Europe;
• Equip decision-makers with practical tools and recommendations to better monitor and integrate mental health into policies across sectors;
• Improve access to inclusive mental health support;
• Support sustainability by making its tools, training and guidelines openly available for replication. 

RESILIA will tackle mental health challenges faced by migrant and displaced women in vulnerable situations, including survivors of human trafficking and violence, as well as refugees and asylum seekers. To address the specific needs of these women, the project will adopt trauma-informed, culturally sensitive and gender-responsive approaches. 

Ultimately, RESILIA will equip EU countries with evidence-based knowledge, tools and scalable practices to improve mental health policies and systems by: 

• Conducting data collection and needs assessments across five EU countries to identify barriers and inform policy;
• Launching awareness campaigns to reduce stigma, highlight the mental health needs of migrant and displaced women and improve literacy;
• Implementing free online training programmes and capacity-building sessions for mental health professionals, social workers and outreach workers to enhance trauma-informed practices;
• Engaging survivors through structured psychological support sessions, empowerment initiatives and the creation of self-support networks;
• Developing evidence-based toolkits, reports and frameworks to improve trauma-informed mental health care. 

PREVENT will address systemic gaps in suicide prevention, mental health literacy and workforce resilience within the justice sector. The project targets justice professionals who engage with vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by mental health disorders and suicide risk, including ex-offenders, individuals under community supervision, homeless persons and veterans. 

PREVENT will enhance the early identification, assessment and referral of individuals with emerging mental health issues by: 

• Providing an evidence-based training programme on mental health crisis management and suicide prevention for justice professionals so they can effectively engage at-risk individuals while safeguarding their own psychological well-being;
• Developing and piloting digital risk assessment tools to standardise mental health screening within probation services;
• Promoting policy innovation and EU-wide knowledge-sharing to align and improve mental health approaches in justice settings;
• Strengthening multi-sectoral cooperation through dialogue formats, ensuring long-term integration of mental health literacy into probation frameworks.  

Background 

EU4Health is the fourth and largest of the EU health programmes. The EU4Health programme goes beyond an ambitious response to the COVID-19 crisis to address the resilience of European healthcare systems. The programme provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe. HaDEA manages the vast majority of the total EU4Health budget and implements the programme by managing calls for proposals and calls for tenders from 2021 to 2027. 

Related links 

• A comprehensive approach to mental health - European Commission
• 2024 EU4Health Work Programme: Discover new projects working on cancer prevention and early detection - European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• 2024 EU4Health Work Programme: Discover new projects working on cancer diagnosis and treatment, and quality of life and survivorship - European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
• 2024 EU4Health Work Programme: new projects advancing digital healthcare across the EU - European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)