Nearly Half of European Workers Stay Silent on Mental Health — Brussels Launches Three-Year Drive to Change That
Published on 10/15/2026 at 09:40 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Roughly one in three healthcare workers across Europe is dealing with work-related mental strain, and the continent's safety watchdog has decided the problem can no longer be filed under "personal issues."
On 13 October 2026, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) unveiled a multi-year campaign at the Charlemagne building in Brussels, alongside EU Commissioner Roxana Mînzatu. Titled "Healthy Workplaces 2026–2028: Together for Mental Health at Work," the initiative aims to raise awareness of psychological strain in daily working life and strengthen prevention inside companies.
The numbers behind the launch
EU-OSHA's own surveys make the case for urgency. Across the European Union, 45 percent of employees report risks to their mental well-being at their workplace. Another 29 percent say they suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in the past year — a figure that has climbed by two percentage points since 2022, according to a survey of just over 25,000 workers in all 27 member states.
The picture is sharpest in health and care, a sector employing more than 21.5 million people EU-wide, where close to one in three workers is affected.
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Silence compounds the problem. According to the agency, 48 percent of employees fear professional repercussions if they speak openly about mental health difficulties. Yet only two in five European companies have established routines specifically designed to prevent work-related stress.
Five priorities, and a bill running into the hundreds of billions
The campaign is built around five action areas:
- Assessing and managing psychosocial risks
- Tackling bullying, sexual harassment and violence
- Examining how physical risks interact with mental health
- Focusing on psychosocial hazards in health and social care
- General measures to support mental health
The economic weight of the issue is substantial. EU-OSHA data put the annual cost of mental illness in working life at more than 600 billion euros across the European Union. OECD calculations add another dimension: depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse could cut life expectancy in Europe by 2.5 years over the next 25 years and account for 28,000 premature deaths annually.
What companies still get wrong
Findings from EU-OSHA's ESENER 2024 establishment survey point to persistent gaps at the organisational level. Fifty-six percent of European organisations treat dealing with difficult customers, patients or pupils as a risk. A quarter do not recognise psychosocial risks at all.
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Worker representation on occupational safety measures also slipped, from 61 percent in 2019 to 55 percent in 2024. And roughly 21 percent of workplaces that identified psychosocial risk factors rated them as harder to manage than other hazards.
Dates for the diary
The campaign kicks off with European Safety and Health Week from 19 to 24 October 2026. Nationally, an opening conference hosted by the EU-OSHA liaison office in Lithuania (VDI) follows in Vilnius on 9 November 2026.
Practical partners are already signing on, including HOSPEEM, the European hospital and healthcare employers' association, as an official campaign partner. Others interested in joining have until 15 January 2027 to apply, according to EU-OSHA.
