Among many other crises (climate, care, housing) we also face a mental health crisis. While mental health cases and issues quickly rise, available support, staff and funding are in decline. According to Martin Price, vice president of Health Economics, Market Access and Reimbursement in Europe:
“The OECD estimates that mental health disorders cost Europe over €600 billion in 2015, equating to around 4 percent of GDP. There are direct health care costs, but with mental health, over 50 percent of costs are indirect, related to factors like absenteeism and productivity losses from work and direct costs related with social security benefits. If we look forward, some estimates are that the economic burden of mental health will rise globally to €14.5 trillion by 2030. Our view is these numbers will be dramatically increased by the pandemic if no action is taken. Depression, in particular, is one of the most prevalent health disorders and a leading cause of disability globally. Pre-pandemic, one in ten people in Europe had taken time off work due to depression. Since the spread of COVID-19 the number of people saying they had poor mental health tripled. The impact is disproportionately born by young people, those who live alone and people with a lower socioeconomic status6. Our view is these numbers will be dramatically increased by the pandemic without stronger action.”
Source: https://www.politico.eu/sponsored-content/tackling-europes-mental-health-crisis/
We must realize and face the fact that the EU and the member nations’ governments will not be able or have the will to fund the currently mainstream mental health services in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, Europe is ageing, and there is a growing intergenerational opinion-divide around how to tackle the climate, the housing and the care crises. Policy and funding priorities are very different between the generations. Young people continue to take on a leading role in influencing, advocating, and demanding responsible climate behaviour and stronger political will from governments and the private sector. The child-free movement is on the rise, more and more women say no to care duties and underpaid care-related jobs including elderly care, nursing, teaching, etc.
Considering all these, the question arises: what can consciously ageing people do to prepare for their old age? What can we do on the individual, family, community, national, and EU levels, as active citizens? How can we contribute to a more sustainable and healthier society?
Well, for one thing, we can build social structures and local systems that are offering space, and support to all generations. There are many ways and good practices already established by activists, trailblazers, and social innovators of the last few decades.
This is one good example: Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe — for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a “limitless resource”: grandmothers. Have a listen to what he has to say:
Why I train grandmothers to treat depression | Dixon Chibanda – YouTube
Another good tool to support communities and individuals is (social) permaculture.
Permaculture, social permaculture and mental health training
There is an Erasmus+ project called „Social Peas”. NGOs from Cyprus (FoE Cyprus), Malta (FoE Malta), Italy (Promimpresa), Slovakia (Icep), Spain (Intras) and the Netherlands (HCAF) are working together to develop locally adjusted trainings and solutions to support vulnerable people and support workers in their work. Permaculture and social permaculture-based training materials are developed, tested, and implemented. The duration of the project is January 2022 – May 2024 and we already have the core educational material ready. It has also been piloted and adjusted in the member countries according to the local contexts and organisational focuses.
We, at Hekate Conscious Ageing Foundation, are focusing mostly on social workers, therapists, community leaders, teachers, mental health support workers, ageing people, and permaculturists as target groups. Also, our focus has been on non-garden-related social permaculture. The reason for that is that we wanted to explore the opportunities of permaculture for those people who do not have resources or access to gardens, long-term projects and interventions. Luckily permaculture and social permaculture have a lot to offer there as well.
We also started to build a community around the topic, so that experts and individuals willing to explore the potential of permaculture and mental health can communicate, co-create and give support to each other.
We strongly believe that bottom-up, small-scale yet robust social permaculture trainings and activities offer affordable and accessible solutions in communities and for vulnerable people and their helpers/healers.
Our next “Permaculture, social permaculture and mental health training” is planned to be launched in 2024. The call for participation will be announced on our website and FB page later this year.
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Social_Peas project is co-funded by the EU
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Hekate 