Press and media

The WHO Regional Committee for Europe, the decision-making body for the WHO European Region, wrapped up its sixty-third session today. Led by ministers and high-level representatives, European countries reached important agreements on a number of key public health issues and the technical and administrative work of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. More than 300 people from 51 Member States in the WHO European Region, international partners and nongovernmental organizations, along with observers, attended the session, which took place on 16–19 September 2013 in Çeşme Izmir, Turkey.

Across the WHO European Region, about 30% of years lived with disability can be attributed to mental disorders, but fewer than 50% of people with a mental disorder have ever received any kind of treatment and even fewer (10%) receive adequate care. This massive unmet need for treatment – the treatment gap – is the result of a combination of the stigma of mental health and mental health services, lack of accessibility and, when services are available, poor quality. Many people are reluctant to go for help owing to the fear associated with mental disorders and a lack of trust in the quality and effectiveness of treatment and care offered by mental health services.

More than 18 million children aged under 18 years suffer from maltreatment in the European Region. Published in a new report from the WHO Regional Office, European report on preventing child maltreatment, these figures are a concern for any policy-maker implementing Health 2020, the new European health policy framework.

Many Member States are now taking up the Health 2020 challenge, reflecting a clear and growing interest in implementing the Health 2020 policy framework in the WHO European Region. At the sixty-third session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, some 300 assembled ministers and stakeholders renewed their commitment to Health 2020. In addition to this, a high-level panel of ministers and delegates shared their plans and experience of implementing the Health 2020 vision within their own countries.

The health of people living in the WHO European Region today is better than ever before. Significant advances have been made recently in specific health areas. Yet despite being a Region rich in knowledge and innovation, and with a long history of public health, not every one of the 900 million people in the Region enjoys the highest possible level of health, and health inequalities threaten further progress.

Despite significant progress in life expectancy in recent decades (an overall increase of 5 years over the past 30 years to 76 years on average), WHO data on disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) show a more complex picture of health, with inequalities across the 53 countries in the WHO European Region. According to the 2012 European health report, on average, low- and middle-income countries lose twice as many years to ill health or premature death as high-income countries in the Region.