European Mental Health Week: Shining a Light on Roma Mental Health 

European Mental Health Week:  Shining a Light on Roma Mental Health 

At the initiative of our partners at Mental Health Europe, Europe observes Mental Health Week 2025 from 19 to 25 May, taking place this year under the theme “Care for mental health, invest in social rights”. This perspective is particularly pertinent for Europe’s Roma, who face significant systemic barriers that hinder their access to mental health care and support, including antigypsyism.  

The Roma are disproportionately affected by poor mental health outcomes, including higher rates of suicide and suffering from stress, depression, or anxiety, given an ongoing state of poverty, deprivation, and marginalisation. Factors such as poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing, as well as ongoing discrimination, take a significant toll on Roma mental health, which also has a negative impact on children. 

In Slovakia, research from 2020 indicates that many excluded Roma households experienced long-term stress due to debt (37.6%), serious illness (24.8%), cold houses (23.9%), hunger (13.5%), discrimination (12.9%), and forced evictions (10.1%), which severely impacted mental as well as physical health. 17.6% of Roma women and 10% of Roma men suffer from depression, compared to 7.7% of non-Roma women and 5% of non-Roma men. 

Despite this, many cannot access necessary care due to factors such as: 

  • Social Determinants: Poverty, inadequate housing, and unemployment exacerbate mental health issues while they create additional barriers to accessing support. 
  • Limited Availability of Services: Healthcare facilities are often scarce in rural and remote Roma communities. 
  • High Costs: The expense of consultations and treatments acts as a significant deterrent. 
  • Antigypsyism and Stigma: Discrimination within healthcare settings leads to a lack of trust in the system. 

These barriers are part and parcel of a general context of historical neglect in what concerns Roma health needs – to find out more, read ERGO Network’s research report on Roma access to healthcare and long-term care (2022). 

The European Commission’s 2023 Communication on mental health acknowledges the heightened risks Roma face due to socio-economic exclusion and discrimination. While this recognition is a step forward, the Communication falls short in putting forward the necessary measures to effectively tackle the situation.  

Such measures could include, among others:  

  • Anti-Bias Training for Mental Health Professionals: To combat discrimination within healthcare settings. 
  • Promotion of Roma Health Mediators: These community-based workers play a crucial role in bridging gaps between Roma individuals and healthcare services. 
  • Ethnically Disaggregated Data Collection: To better understand and address the mental health needs of Roma populations. 

ERGO Network calls for these elements to be incorporated into EU mental health strategies, to ensure that Roma voices are heard and their needs addressed, as detailed in our full analysis of the Communication.  

On the occasion of the European Mental Health Week, ERGO Network wants to shine a light on the barriers and potential solutions highlighted above, to create an equitable mental health framework for Roma communities across Europe.  

Key elements of such a framework would need to include universal health insurance coverage, to ensure that all Roma individuals have access to affordable care; developing services within Roma communities, to reduce barriers to access; implementing policies to eliminate bias, antigypsyism, and segregation in healthcare settings, to restore trust; and involving the Roma in the design, implementation, and monitoring of mental health policies. 

By addressing these areas, Europe can move towards a mental health system that truly serves all its citizens, including the Roma

As we reflect on the theme of European Mental Health Week 2025, it is imperative to recognise that mental health is deeply intertwined with social rights. For the Roma community, achieving mental well-being requires systemic change that addresses the root causes of inequality and exclusion. Only through inclusive policies and practices can we ensure that mental health care is accessible and effective for all. 

In the words of Mustafa Jakupov of the ERGO Network Board, “Mental health is a social justice issue. Roma communities deserve better – mental health must be a right, not a privilege”.  

=> Watch his full video message here.

ERGO Network remains committed to advocating for the rights of Roma and will continue to work towards a Europe where good mental health is a shared priority for all, not a privilege for the few. 

For more information about ERGO Network’s work on Roma access to quality, inclusive, and affordable healthcare and long-term care, including mental health care and support, contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro at a.ferro@ergonetwork.org.   

ERGO Network Snapshot of Health care, Inclusion of people with disabilities, Long-term care

Snapshot on the Situation of Roma in Europe: Healthcare, Inclusion of People with Disabilities, Long-Term Care  

Our Snapshots on the Situation of Roma in Europe are a series of reader-friendly, visually attractive handouts, linking each of the 20 policy principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights to Roma rights and inclusion. Each Snapshot includes key statistics, a brief problem statement, and extensive policy recommendations.  

Systemic health inequalities and entrenched unmet care needs are a daily reality for most of Europe’s Roma, entrenching disparities that range from life expectancy to prevalence of disabilities, across the medical spectrum, from mental health to sexual and reproductive health and rights. These are driven by social determinants such as poverty, antigypsyism, exclusion from services and insurance, and under-utilisation of Roma health mediators. 

  • Read the Snapshot here! 

For more information about our work on Healthcare, Inclusion of People with Disabilities, Long-Term Care, please contact Amana Ferro (a.ferro@ergonetwork.org), Senior Policy Adviser with the ERGO Network staff team. 

News from the Centre de Mediations des Gens de Voyage et des Roms

Centre de Médiation des Gens du Voyage et des Roms, Belgium:

Since 2001, the CMGVR has been active with both the Roma and the Traveller communities, providing daily social and administrative help, as well as support for their professional integration.  As a mediation body, it makes the relation with authorities, institutions and services easier and more effective for Roma families. The CMGVR proposes frequent supervisions for local authorities, and trainings for Roma mediators and social, educative, administrative and health workers. Our NGO also tries to support the effective participation of Roma and Travellers at the discussion tables on national, regional and local levels and ensures that Roma and Travellers’ claims reach the political level.


New local projects of integration through housing

For a number of years, the CMGVR has drawn attention to an alarming observation: the number of Roma families in situation of homelessness is increasing, not only in Brussels but also in other Belgian cities. To this day, there is hardly any humanitarian (and even emergency) answer to the worrisome situation of these families and children. Recently, the difficulties they face have even worsened with the introduction of the “anti-squat law”.

Beyond to the lack of infrastructure and regulation, an additional difficulty lies in the family dimension of homelessness faced by Roma, as most of the existing initiatives meant to tackle homelessness or develop housing insertion are conceived for individuals, not for families. This observation holds for the most basic housing support like emergency night shelters, the great majority of which are not accessible to children. Beyond short term emergency sheltering, Roma people face numerous obstacles on the rental market and in accessing social housing.

In the face of this significant lack of perspectives for families living in precarious housing conditions, the CMGVR has decided to innovate and launch local projects of insertion through housing. At this time, two families have been provided with temporary housing (6 months to a year). These projects are developed in partnerships with local authorities and with the social housing public and private agencies. They are inspired by the method of “Housing First”[1] and have the ambition of bringing marginalized families back into regular social and administrative rights. The CMGVRW thus follows up on the accompaniment of these families with social, educational, administrative and health support.

This experience has shown that housing insertion comes with an increased ability for families to cope and stabilize other areas of life, which they could not address while living in the streets. The numerous positive outcomes of these local projects illustrate that while there are no ready-made solutions, some successful operational practices do exist and should be developed on a wider scale.

Working in the context of a sanitary crisis

In 2020, the CMGVR has had to adjust its projects and services to the global pandemic of COVID-19, particularly during the lockdown period.

From the very beginning of the healthcare crisis, the CMGVR became aware that communicating about COVID-19 would be a major challenge, particularly for the most “vulnerable” groups, for whom language barriers or situations of socio-economic poverty might hinder access to information or health care. All through the confinement period, the CMGVR team thus made sure to maintain optimal communication and follow-up with Roma and Traveller families.  As early as March 2020, the CMGVR launched a wide information campaign about the COVID-19 crisis and the sanitary measures recommended by the government. As the government decisions and confinement phases evolved, the information was regularly updated and made available on social networks, as well as through mails and texts translated into several Eastern European languages (including romanes). The objective was to respond to the many fears and questions raised by the pandemic, and to ensure that the sanitary measures were understood and applied by all.

The CMGVR also sought to support health care professionals by offering translation services to hospitals, medical houses and general practitioners in order to facilitate communication with Roma individuals and families. Similar services of translation and mediation were also offered to schoolteachers and other educational actors as schools reopened, both in June and in September 2020.

Now that the lockdown period is over, the CMGVR has resumed its on-site projects and accompaniment, notably its mobile school support project, which provides complementary learning support to Traveller families and children with a focus on reading, writing and calculation. The CMGVR also offers school support to Roma children who face language or learning difficulties.

[1]    “Housing First” is the name of a method meant to tackle homelessness, based on the idea that any effective inclusion process starts with a decent place to live. In this logic, providing homeless people with an individual and permanent housing is a prerequisite for durable inclusion.

Promotion of sustainable gardening and healthy food: training, booklet and e-book Butterfly Developments 2019

Promotion of sustainable gardening and healthy food: training, booklet and e-book
Butterfly Developments 2019

Pro Cseherat had a busy year 2019. It organized several community events and published two publications on sustainable eating and gardening. Pro Cseherat can proudly state that the participants in the programs have become a community.

Garden: chemical-free vegetables for home
In 2019 we continued our garden program in Nagydobos, a small town in one of the poorest areas of Hungary. With our community garden, we help the livelihood and the integration of Roma families living in extreme poverty. Those who join the Butterfly Garden program learn gardening practices throughout the agricultural year, and can take home all the vegetables they produce. Each garden can satisfy the yearly vegetable needs of several families.

Training: healthy and sustainable households
This year, gardener practices have been completed by a series of trainings promoting chemical-free gardening, recycling, healthy eating and household planning. We explained to our gardeners how chemical-free vegetable growing contributes to the sustainability of our planet. During several cozy joint picnics, they learned healthy cooking and preservation techniques. They also learned about composting, waste management and recycling. We even sew reusable shopping bags together. In September we presented our vegetable delicacies (jams, salads, spreads, cakes etc.) with success at the International Pumpkin Festival in Nagydobos. We have also published our trainings in a brochure with tips and recepies that can be used daily to support the everyday sustainable life.
http://www.bffd.hu/tedd-jobba95

E-book: Would you love to love lentils? – Everything about the fabulous pulses
Why are pulses useful for sustainability? How can we integrate them into any kind of diet? What basic nutrients do we get from them? All of this is summarized in one e-book, decorated with wonderful illustrations. The book concludes with a chapter entitled “Creative Kitchen,” which provides tips for readers to create different lentil-pea-bean wonder dishes every single day of the year. The book’s chapters were presented at tasting events throughout the year.
http://www.bffd.hu/szeretned-szeretni-a-lencset-e-konyv93

Drugs, No Thanks

Drugs, No Thanks

ERGO Network’s Croatian member organisation Udruga Roma Zagreb i Zagrebačke županije has been running the drug prevention project “Drugs, No Thanks”every year for the last 15 years. This year it was expanded to other types of addiction, especially gambling and betting, which is especially pronounced in our Roma population.

With this project, the organisation is helping a lot of young Roma to get rid of drug, alcohol, gambling and betting addictions.  They encourage them to get (further) education to improve their employability, so that they do not have to go work abroad.

During the project, they also issued a manual with information about different drug addictions that you can find here in Croatian.

 

`
Health – ERGO Network

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close