Mental Health Europe Advisor speaks to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Today Mental Health Europe Senior Policy Advisor on Human Rights, Kristijan Grðan, went to the Council of Europe and spoke at the debate organised by the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance on “Addressing the mental health impact of hate speech and discrimination.”

Addressing the effect on mental health of racism and hate speech requires a psychosocial approach acknowledging their societal roots and consequences: racism harms not just individuals, but whole communities and social cohesion, with wider costs to public health and human rights. Mental health thrives in fair and equal society, racism and hate speech have no part in this. Therefore, solution should not only focus on the individual but also urgently address structural forces – like racism, exclusion, poverty, and hate speech, discriminatory systems and narratives producing harm. Hence, we need to apply a mental health in all policies approach.

Hate speech and broader structural racism are not just personal insults, they should be seen as public health issues.  They create environments where mental health risk factors accumulate (chronic stress, trauma, exclusion) and protective factors are stripped away (social connection, safe environments, equitable services).  Reducing incidents of hate speech and discrimination is thus essential to prevent mental health problems at a population level.

Kristijan ended his intervention on this note;

“Only by rejecting discrimination in all its forms, including in mental health laws and policy, can the Council of Europe
demonstrate true leadership in combating hatred and upholding the values of dignity and equality.”

Interested in learning more about coercion in mental health care and how we want to prevent it getting worse? Check out the #WithdrawOviedo campaign page

If you’d like to learn more about the impacts of racism and discrimination on mental health, check out our recent report