Abstract
The worldwide pandemic caused by the covid-19 virus led to interventions in personal freedom of citizens that were never seen before. These measures limiting freedom caused an enormous impact on people’s mental health, which is largely dependant on social, economic and environmental factors. Mainly in young people a strong increase in mental health problems could be observed. Specific sanitary measures heavily affected their social lives, education, hobbies and other areas in their lives. This crisis showed us the interconnectedness of many areas of life with mental health policy and the need for a holistic approach. Therefore we mustn’t focus solely on expanding mental health care and making it more accessible if we want a general improvement of the population’s mental health. On top of the important and necessary increase in accessibility and availability, there is a need to prevent additional mental health problems of our citizens. For this reason we want to make a case for a mental health in all policies. There is a need for high quality integrated mental health care, as well as generally a policy of integrated care that addresses mental health as part of the larger health system, which fortifies resilience. In this presentation we want to demonstrate this need by showing local examples and research which makes the case for a mental health in all policies for all.