In its comprehensive approach to mental health, published on 7 June 2023, the European Commission stressed that the complexity and increasing challenges that European society faces in terms of mental health and loneliness require a holistic strategy that recognises the importance of family, community, economy, society, environment and safety. Being committed to addressing the growing loneliness in the EU, the Commission launched a pilot project on loneliness in June 2023. According to the Commission, loneliness is a complex and widespread problem that affects people of all ages and backgrounds. Loneliness is considered a risk factor for mental and physical health and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. It can also have significant negative social and economic consequences. "Loneliness is not just a private and individual problem" the report reads. It can hinder social cohesion and should be considered a social problem and addressed as such. (…) Favourable economic situations, as well as the quantity and quality of social interactions, are fundamental when it comes to preventing loneliness."
Furthermore, in its comprehensive approach to mental health, the European Commission underlines that psychosocial risks and work-related stress are among the most challenging issues of occupational safety and health. As a result, it undertook to present, in the medium term, a European-wide initiative on psycho-social risks at work, together with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
The European Sunday Alliance – a vast network of more than 100 bodies committed to raising awareness of the unique value of Sunday for society and the importance of a common day of rest – invited policy makers and stakeholders to a European Parliamentary breakfast to discuss the role of synchronised leisure time as an element in addressing mental health issues and loneliness, posing as issues:
– What positive impact can a better work-life balance have on psycho-social health and consequent illness-related absenteeism at work?
– What is the specific impact of synchronised time off on mental health, compared to scattered days off during the week?
– As a result, what could be the scope of a European-level initiative on psycho-social risks at work?
– How can an effective work-life balance and synchronised leisure time for workers reduce loneliness and social isolation?
– How can people be supported in finding a better work-life balance and countering loneliness and social isolation in society?
– How can greater participation in common social communities be promoted, including in the areas of cultural, religious and sports activities and volunteering?
Talking about health today therefore means more and more also talking about mental health, outside and inside the workplace.
32% of the global population has a form of mental disorder.
“TELUS Health” conducted a global survey on trends in the mental health of employed adults between October and April 2023. The Europe Report, which involved six Member States (France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy), highlights a decline in the mental health of European workers, with 38% of workers at high risk of mental health problems.
Anxiety is the most common condition, sleep problems are in second place, followed by depression.
The survey also found that younger employees, up to the age of 40, are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety or depression as those aged 50 and over. Financial status and gender also play a role: women have a mental health score 5 points lower than men.
Leisure continues to be a challenge in the work culture in the West. The current cultural and economic conditioning feeds the idea that the path to success requires sacrificing the time of rest. But the data is unequivocal: Leisure planning benefits individual well-being, career success, business performance, and the economy in general.
Free time helps to reduce stress, to get in touch with others and the context and therefore to counteract loneliness.
Taking care of your mental health is possible. How? Through the day off, crucial to take care of yourself, your mental health, family, friends and community.
Neuroscience states that a brain can restructure itself considerably according to lifestyle and habits, not only in children, but also in young people and adults. An unhealthy lifestyle causes our brain to deteriorate and age earlier, leading to emotional discomforts such as depression, anxiety, hypersensitivity to pain and apathy.
Well-being and quality of life are the result of three factors:
– a healthy body;
– a healthy mind, capable of integrating and regulating subjective experience;
– the ability to forge and maintain meaningful relationships with others.
Scientific studies on brain plasticity show how relationships are able to shape the structure and functioning of the brain: through mutual exchange, the individual has the possibility of finding resources otherwise inaccessible if they lived in isolation.
Therefore, there is no universal recipe to improve your quality of life, but there are a series of practices that can facilitate this continuous research, because they help balance and integrate the three levels of body, mind and relationships.
D. J. Siegel, American psychiatrist, in "the MENU FOR A HEALTHY MIND" proposes the MAGNIFICENT 7s OF HEALTH in order to achieve optimal brain development and improve physiological, physical, psychological and emotional health: the time of concentration, the time of interiority, the time of play, the time of movement, the time of sleep, the time of relationship, the time of idleness.
In Europe, 9 million adolescents and young people are struggling with mental health problems, mainly marked by depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders. Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people between 15 and 19 years old and is the second leading cause of death among young people; self-harm affects around 1 in 5 adolescents in Europe and, in general, thinking about suicide or attempted suicide.
Over 6 out of 10 young people claim to suffer from distress due to the context in which they live. From this condition arise panic attacks, alterations in eating habits and sleep-wake rhythm and difficulty concentrating in the study. A fertile ground on which restlessness, loneliness, anger towards oneself or others proliferate, with the consequent need to "anesthetisze oneself" not to think. How? Taking refuge in the digital world.
These are alarming data that affect everyone and that push us to never lower the attention on prevention.
Attention to people's mental well-being is a priority both in terms of supply and "institutional culture", through a long-term strategy that sees people and their psycho-physical well-being as protagonists. For this reason, we must increasingly promote the right to love ourselves by taking care of ourselves and our time, to disconnect from what oppresses us in order to reconnect with ourselves, with others and the surrounding world, without fear or fear of judgment.
