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Mental Health & Wellbeing

Mission description

The crisis situation has had a very strong negative effect on the mental well-being of Estonian citizens. According to Statistics Estonia, there has been a steep rise in mental health related cases in 2018-2019 and policy goals have not been met. Unfortunately this is also evident in the number of youth suicides, growth in domestic violence and a study by Tallinn University which demonstrates that signs of depression are on the rise. 

This has a direct effect on economic well-being, motivation to work and interpersonal relations. Mental health issues cause losses that amount to 2,8% of the Estonian GDP, in other words about 572 million euros per year. Given the coronavirus circumstances, things are about to get worse in the upcoming years.

The Estonian society has a strong mandate to pursue better mental health for its citizens. In the summer of 2020, policy guidelines around mental health aggregated the urgency of the problem. It is within the strategic goals of Estonia to pursue healthy behaviour of its citizens. 

Within the Accelerate Estonia mental health mission, we will try and make some of the breakthroughs reality. We will find new stimuli for the public and private sector to achieve both quick wins as well as long-term changes in our approach to mental health. 

Authorities backing the mission

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Peaasi-ee_logo
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Mission Board members

Karin Streimann
The National Institute for Health Development
Pirkko Valge
The Good Deed Foundation
Anna-Kaisa Oidermaa
Peaasi.ee
Riina Raudne, PhD
Research Development

Why now?

  • In 2020, the urgency of solving mental health related problems became strategically important, and the negative effects have become too hard to bear as a society. We have a clear mandate to change the situation. 
  • The total effect of not dealing with mental health issues costs the society hundreds of millions euros per year. This includes cost of public services as well as inability to take part in society by our citizens. 
  • The COVID-19 crisis is only making things worse, we are losing more and more. Together with the private sector we must reclaim the value that we could have!

Challenges

Challenge description

The advancement of mental health has gained momentum over the last few years, but the problems related with the field are still causing more and more stress on the Estonian economy, the state and enterprises.

What could success look like?

  • We could make significant advancements in the Index of Happyness without raising the level of financing that the public sector needs to put in. 
  • There could be specific examples by which we can say that the principle of “mental health is considered in each policy” actually works. 
  • The way we organise mental healt policies in Estonia and the participation of the private sector and citizens is trend-setting. 
  • Inequality based on gender, age, region, and education will decrease at least as fast as proposed by the national strategic goals.

How to measure success?

  • By the end of 2021, there are three validated models about how to develop an index of happiness that is suitable for the Estonian society, along with solid metrics. 
  • In public and private cooperation a roadmap has been designed and adopted that will raise the position of Estonia in the international index of happiness. 
  • There will be measurable positive changes in barriers that have thus far kept the private sector from providing mental health services.  
  • There will be up to 5 new business models that allow the better availability of services regionally and among risk groups. 

Potential avenues to consider

  • Involving spokespeople within the public and private sector. 
  • Finding metrics that match the ambitious goals.

The challenge can be further elaborated by

Challenge Description

Especially in youth, there are a lot of alarming signs about mental health. The coronavirus crisis and the isolation has only raised the risks. The private sector and NGOs could help the government find and develop research-based services for kids, the youth and their support networks. This should lead to scalable services.

What could success look like?

  • We could have better premises for launching new private sector services aimed at better mental health. We could have an effect on the segments that are most affected by mental health issues in the young population (e.g. the ability of parents to cope) .
  • The youth in Estonia will be physically more active, will eat more healthily and their social and self-development skills will improve. 
  • The kids and youth will have a secure, caring and supporting environment. 
  • The Estonian health care system, social support system, education system, regulatory atmosphere and the private sector will have top notch opportunities to develop the mental and physical health of our youth, develop the services needed for that.

How to measure success?

  • Different community or technology based services and applications have been created or tested.  
  • Development of urban space – at least five local municipalities have increased the availability of spending time in the public space. 
  • There is clarity on stimuli that are needed for the private sector to provide services that advance the physical and mental health of youth, whether fully on private terms or together with the public sector. 
  • The percentage of youth that like to go to school is higher, the rate of sadness, depression and suicidal thoughts is lower. 

Potential avenues to consider

  • Developing parental skills all along the life cycle of children, including trainings, counseling of parents, availability of family therapy etc. 
  • Including the youth in validating the ideas necessary for change. 
  • Adopting ideas from elsewhere and trying them out in Estonia.

The challenge can be elaborated by

Challenge description

The acknowledgement of mental health related issues and dealing with them via self-help or other channels is highly stigmatised. This is true on many levels: individual, community as well as the public health system.

What could success look like?

  • The stigmatisation of mental health issues will decrease. 
  • Service provision levels have increased: people are willing to look for help and speak up about their problems. 
  • Mental health is considered as important as physical health. 

How to measure success?

  • By the end of 2021, at least 10 noteworthy enterprises have tested solutions aimed at bettering the mental health of their employees.  
  • At least 5 ideas related to accessibility have been identified and tested in some communities in Estonia.  

Potential avenues to consider

  • On a personal level it is possible to test how taking care of mental health could become a component of being seen as successful. Similarly to how taking care of physical health has become a status symbol, the same could be true for mental health. 
  • It is possible to adopt existing services, which may be redesigned that leads to scalability
  • On a country level there should be long-term strategic communication to support the ability of the society to cope with difficult mental health issues.  

The challenge can be elaborated by

Challenge description

The divide between those in need of mental health related services and the amount of professional help available is growing rapidly. The adoption of technology faces technical, legal and mindset-related hurdles.

What could success look like?

  • To turn the situation around, we must find, test and introduce technologies that will bring the availability of mental health services from 3 months to 3 days. 
  • The current information systems should allow to identify which target groups are more vulnerable and cannot reach the necessary services (e.g. families or individuals) 
  • The social, educational and health system should work as a single system that together with the private sector can support kids and families on a new level of quality. 

How to measure success?

  • We have identified the technical, security-related, legal and mindset-related hurdles and solved a bunch of them. 
  • We have an adequate and bold assessment of the needs to involve technology to find the scalable solutions and decrease mental health problems by a large degree. 
  • There is a realistic plan to run a critical amount of changes, including by the public sector. The plan should be approved by necessary counterparts.  

 

Potential avenues to consider

  • Match private companies working on the subject with public sector knowledge on bottlenecks. 
  • Develop remote service availability and, if successful, adopt changes in regulation (data privacy, information exchange, quality standards) to jumpstar a market of remote services and telemedicine in the mental health space. 
  • Introduce services aimed at organisations and enterprises, so that each company or organisation could find quick wins.

The challenge can be elaborated by

Challenge Description

Quite often mental health issues are part of a more complex challenge – poverty. The older population is at higher risk here and the cost of this challenge is growing rapidly. The older the population becomes, the more burdensome this becomes on the public sector.

What could success look like?

  • Diminishing the risk of poverty will also help to advance mental health, general well-being, diminish the risk of lack of self-realisation and will provide relief to a number of other social problems.

How to measure success?

  • We will have tested different ideas that decrease the risk of poverty. 
  • We will have tested different ideas that will increase the awareness of mental health issues among the older population. 

Potential avenues to consider

  • Match already existing private sector teams with public sector knowledge of the bottlenecks within this challenge.

The challenge can be elaborated by

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