7.5 Mental health
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National strategy(ies)
There is no current national strategy for mental health in Croatia.
Mental health protection is covered on the level of primary, secondary and tertiary health protection, as prescribed by the legal framework (The Health Care Act and the Mandatory Health Insurance Act) (Zakon o zdravstvenoj zaštiti, NN 100/18, 125/19, 147/20 i Zakon o obaveznom zdravstvenom osiguranju NN 80/13, 137/13, 98/19). Health protection is implemented by the Croatian Public Health Institute, county public health institutes and health institutions.
The network of public health service also includes a network of teams in charge of mental health protection, prevention and outpatient addiction treatment in public health institutes on the county level. The existing addiction prevention services expanded their activities to include mental health protection, so the activities of mental health protection, prevention and outpatient addiction treatment were organised on the county institute level. The Croatian Public Health Institute has been given a strategic and coordination role, along with the Mental Health and Addiction Prevention Department, and the Mental Health Promotion Counselling Service within the Mental Health and Addiction Prevention Service framework.
Improving the mental health of young people
Croatia doesn’t have specific public policies targeting young people in the field of mental health improvement, although there are certain measures within already mentioned public policies being implemented in Croatia on regional and local levels, such as the activities of the public health institutes network and the activities of numerous civil society associations aimed at young people.