Lawrence Kalogreades represented the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline at the “Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being of Children and Young People: Making it happen” conference which took place on 29th-30th September 2009, in Stockholm, Sweden.
The conference was organized jointly by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, under the auspices of the Swedish Presidency of the EU. The conference was one of a series of five conferences which are key elements to the implementation of the European Pact for Mental health and Well-being, established in June 2008.
The conference had three objectives, namely:
1. To raise the visibility of the importance of promoting mental health and well-being and preventing mental disorders in children and young people.
2. To enable an exchange at EU-level on policy activities, good practices by stakeholders and research projects in Member states, supported by a Commission database.
3. Discuss and endorse an implementation framework for action on mental health in children and young people.
The presentations and discussion sessions revolved around work done by various research centers, NGOs, the World Health Organization, and governmental agencies from throughout the EU. A presentation regarding FP7 funding was also given.
The concluding remarks of the conference focused on the need to stimulate research and development in order to understand the pit-falls which youngsters face in the EU, especially in light of the current economic crisis, and to generate the necessary changes in the educational, social and economic systems in order to guarantee the well-being and economic survival of future generations, and to concurrently generate jobs and cost-effective measures towards this end in order to also counter the current economic climate in the EU.
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