Mental health of Netherlands residents under pressure, advisory council warns
Netherlands residents find themselves living in a “hyper-nervous society” with increasing pressure to perform and be self-reliant in an increasingly fast-paced world. That “seriously threatens the well-being of young and old,” the Council for Public Health and Society (RVS) said in a report on Monday. The RVS recommends hitting the brakes and “working together towards a more relaxed society,” NOS reports.
According to the Council, it has become the norm for people to respond to messages within minutes and receive a package within a day of ordering. And the consequences of this fast-paced life are visible in the growing number of young people struggling with performance pressure, workers with burnout, and the fact that almost half of adults experience mental health problems at some point in their lives. Mental health problems cost society approximately €18 billion per year, according to the council.
“Everywhere, there is an expectation to perform better and faster. At the same time, the individual is held solely responsible for their own happiness.” Currently, when people seek help, it primarily focuses on individuals and their resilience, through training and courses, for example. But as long as society continues to demand ever higher standards, this form of help will have little effect. “With mindfulness courses and self-help books, we’re shifting the problem back to the individual, but we should view it as a societal problem,” said RVS chair Jet Bussemaker.
A cultural shift is needed to tackle this problem at its roots, Bussemaker said. That means not focusing only on individual solutions, but bringing calm to society itself with more connection and “everyday deceleration.” The RVS recommends creating space for “downtime” when nothing is required at work, school, and leisure time. “Such time creates space for creativity, reflection, and genuine contact.”
“We need to think together about how we can improve together,” Bussemaker said. She sees room for improvement in reducing administrative burdens, allowing employees to focus on the part of their work they truly enjoy, and improving their work-life balance. She also stressed the right to be unreachable, something France and Australia recently implemented. That means employees have the right to ignore messages and calls from their employers during their time off. “A small start can lead to a larger movement,” Bussemaker said.
Bringing calm to society is “not a luxury” but an “absolute necessity,” the RVS wrote. “We must discover together how exactly we implement this change. Only together can we restore mental health.”
