Every year, 10October, marks the “World Mental Health Day” which represents “an opportunity for people and communities to unite behind the theme ‘Mental health is a universal human right’ to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right.” as stated by the World Health Organisation. Moreover, this day is the greatest occasion to remind all healthcare stakeholders and citizens of the importance of mental health and the importance of breaking the social stigmas around it, and raising awareness about this important topic.
From an EFN perspective, representing 3 million EU nurses, it is essential to highlight how severely the nurses’ mental health has been tested due to increasingly complex situations and precarious working conditions in which nurses’ work. The aging of the nursing staff and the lack of young nurses put a strain on the proper functioning of healthcare systems that, in this way, risk to collapse.
The nursing profession is not attractive for the young generation and the lack of nurses only increases the workload for those who remain in this profession, increasing levels of stress and burnout.
As the European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) and Mental Health Europe (MHE) asked to the EU institutions, the EU Member States, the health industry and the other health stakeholders, it is necessary to take in place concrete actions for supporting nurses’ mental health – such as:
- Put in place national and local programmes to support frontline nurses who are caring for patients to preserve their mental health and prevent psychological trauma.
- Combat the stigmatisation of nurses;
- Foster the co-creation and co-design with frontline nurses, concerning relevant political decision-making processes;
- Work closely with the nursing profession to develop policies that protect frontline staff from unnecessarily difficult or unsafe working conditions;
- Allocate funds to support frontline nurses;
- Urgently adopt European comprehensive long-term strategies on mental health.
It is crucial to keep our nurses protected from chronic stress and poor mental health. Ensuring their well-being and mental health is key to sustain any pandemic preparedness, response, and recovery.
It is therefore time to reflect on this and start taking care of those who care. “Our minds, our rights” good World Mental Health Day to all of you!