This wrap-up has been compiled by the Programme
PROGRAMME 2021-2027
Priority 1 Innovative societies
Objective 1.1 Resilient economies and communities
MentalHealthMatters
Wrap-up of project achievements
Poor mental health at work affects both employees and organisations, yet many employers and occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals lack the knowledge and tools to address psychosocial risks effectively. The Interreg project MentalHealthMatters responded by developing hands-on methods and resources to help workplaces identify risks, prevent mental health issues and create healthier working environments.
Highlights
MentalHealthMatters
Highlights
BSR Food Coalition
The project MentalHealthMatters has successfully addressed the challenge of rising psychosocial risks in workplaces by bringing together public health experts, employers, social partners, and policymakers across the health, education, and labour sectors to jointly develop practical steps to systematically create healthier, safer work environments and improve employees’ mental well-being.
In a nutshell, the project provided these people with the following:
- Output: Roadmap for Improvement of OSH policy and education
- Output: First-Aid Kit for Mental Health
Project
Details
Project type
Small project
Project duration
August 2023 – July 2025
Contribution to the EUSBSR
PA Health
Budget in million
EURO
Involved
Countries
Lead partner
Project partners
Project Details
Project type
Small project
Project duration
August 2023 – July 2025
Contribution to the EUSBSR
PA Health
Budget in million EURO
0.5 total // 0.32 ERDF // 0.05 Norway
Involved Countries
Lead Partner: Sweden
Project Partners: Finland // Latvia // Estonia // Poland // Norway
Roadmap for Improvement of OSH policy and education
Farm-to-school programmes
The project has developed a Roadmap for Improvement of OSH policy and education in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Poland. The Roadmap builds on the consensus reached through the National Communities of Practice established by the project. It provides both country-specific recommendations tailored to distinct national challenges and contexts, and includes proposals for collaborative actions in the Baltic Sea Region, emphasising how these countries can support each other, in three key improvement areas: policies and regulations, knowledge and data, education and training. It outlines options for improving psychosocial risk assessment and support for SMEs in Estonia, advancing interprofessional OSH education in Finland, raising employer awareness in Latvia, building healthier workplace cultures in Poland, and extending mental-health-support tools for migrant-worker sectors in Norway. The document also highlights four streams for regional collaboration, emphasising how the Baltic Sea Region can jointly support healthier workplaces.
The project actively engaged OSH authorities, social partners and experts from labour, health, safety and education sectors, and policymakers from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Norway (like the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Poland and Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority), who jointly discussed and drafted the roadmap. It is complemented by two additional documents: 1. country-specific technical reports that uncover the current state of occupational health and safety policies, regulations, data availability, and education, highlighting the needs for improvement; and 2. a legal annex compiling an overview of definitions, legislation, and national guidance related to the psychosocial work environment. The greatest value of doing this transnationally was the ability to compare legal frameworks, share and learn from each other’s experiences, and propose solutions together that respect national priorities while aligning with broader EU standards.
This has enabled national authorities from the Communities of Practice and partners to use the Roadmap as a policy reference and development tool, fostering evidence-based decision-making and stimulating policy dialogues at national and transnational levels. Thanks to this, the project helped OSH experts and civil servants with an in-depth analysis of national shortcomings regarding workplace mental health and possible interventions to address them. Furthermore, policy advisors, ministerial staff and legal experts can better inform national policy processes.
By now, the Roadmap is already being used across all five project countries:
- Finland: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is using the roadmap to explore future occupational safety and health (OSH) policy directions.
- Latvia: The Ministry of Welfare has started evaluating the roadmap’s findings and expressed interest in discussing concrete initiatives to strengthen preventive and regulatory frameworks.
- Norway: The Labour Inspection Authority is using insights from the roadmap to support the expansion of its Workplace Environment Tool to sectors with high proportions of migrant workers, such as passenger transport.
- Poland: The Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine has integrated the project findings into a major national research initiative on workplace health promotion, shaping subsequent trend studies.
- Estonia: Employers’ confederations and trade unions are using the roadmap as a source of inspiration and a reference for their national development work, while benchmarking activities with neighbouring countries.
Within a short time of its publication, the Roadmap is already informing policy development, regulatory discussions, tool development, and national research across all five project countries.
Get inspired
First-Aid Kit for Mental Health
Knowledge exchange across borders
The project has developed the First-Aid Kit for Mental Health for employers, managers, HR staff and occupational safety and health (OSH) specialists, in order to close the gap between policy-level ambitions and everyday workplace practice. The Kit is a multilingual, research-based online tool that provides practical “quick wins” for preventing and managing psychosocial risks, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources. It works as a platform, available free of charge in English, Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Norwegian. Its content is organised into 21 thematic categories covering key aspects of the psychosocial work environment, from overtime and remote work to burnout and anxiety. Each section defines the issue, clarifies roles and responsibilities within the workplace and offers research-based tools and concrete steps that can be applied immediately.
The project actively engaged experts from the health, labour and education sectors, as well as employers and social partners from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Poland, who cooperated to identify, compile and structure the full range of resources that make up the first-aid kit. The greatest value in doing this transnationally lay in pooling diverse legal, organisational and cultural perspectives to create a tool that is both evidence-based and adaptable to different national contexts. The novelty lies in combining policy knowledge, academic research, and hands-on employer experience into a single practical, user-friendly digital instrument.
This has enabled workplace leaders to better understand psychosocial risks, take structured action, and strengthen resilient work communities. Thanks to this, the project made workplace mental health promotion tangible and achievable, empowering leaders to act proactively instead of reactively.
By now, the First-Aid Kit has been introduced to companies, employer organisations, labour inspectorates, and universities across the partner countries:
- Estonia: attorneys at law have used the Kit to clarify internal leadership responsibilities and introduce low-cost measures such as clearer remote-work norms and new workplace rituals. One enterprise used the Kit to reframe recurring “hot situations” as work process challenges, introducing an expectations sheet that reduced off-hours calls. Swedbank has initiated systematic psychosocial risk assessments following its involvement in developing the Kit. The Estonian Confederation of Employers and the Labour Inspectorate actively recommend the Kit to companies seeking guidance. Tallinn University of Technology has integrated the Kit into OSH, HR, and management curricula. It is also permanently embedded in management and HR development training, with plans to expand it to SME-focused professional training.
- Latvia: the Labour Inspectorate actively recommends the Kit to companies seeking guidance.
Riga Stradins University has integrated the Kit into OSH, HR, and management curricula. - Finland: Tampere University and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health have integrated the Kit into OSH, HR, and management curricula.
Interreg pays off
Follow-up activities
Interreg pays off: Solutions in use
The project’s impact is already extending beyond its lifetime through new policy initiatives, research and capacity-building efforts across the Baltic Sea Region. In Finland, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and universities are exploring an interprofessional occupational safety and health (OSH) curriculum, supported by a joint funding application prepared to advance interprofessional OSH education. In Norway, the Workplace Environment Tool of the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority, which was further developed within MentalHealthMatters using insights from the Roadmap and transnational exchange, will be expanded to new sectors, including passenger transport, while also improving multilingual accessibility.
At the regional level, the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) will continue building on the Roadmap through the project platform BSR Mental Health to develop long-term policy recommendations for non-clinical mental health initiatives across the Baltic Sea Region. NDPHS also plans to further enhance the toolkit by integrating short videos and quick diagnostic questions for each thematic category, as well as new content on culture, arts and physical activity as promoters of mental health. These follow-up initiatives demonstrate how the Roadmap is already generating spin-off effects in policy development, research and practical implementation beyond the project’s lifetime.
In numbers
26 organisations cooperating across borders
38 organisations directly benefitting
Project Wrap-Up
Thanks to Interreg funding and transnational cooperation, this project substantially advanced efforts to prevent psychosocial risks at work and closed the gap between policy ambitions and practical workplace solutions for employers, authorities and social partners in the Baltic Sea region.
Now, workplace leaders, labour inspectorates, policy makers and researchers in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Poland can finally rely on shared knowledge, concrete tools and joint policy direction to systematically implement mentally healthier and safer work environments.
