The country’s mental-health system cannot beimproved by expanding specialist services alone.
The June 30 event also launched a National Mental Health Network intended to keep the cross-sector dialogue alive after the conference and turn it into a longer-term process. The forum was organized as a working event rather than a series of formal presentations. Participants joined 19 open-space groups covering prevention, primary care, psychotherapy, child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction, rehabilitation, crisis intervention, financing and digital mental health.
Before the official opening, Zsolt Unoka, deputy director of Semmelweis University’s Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and chair of the organizing committee, said at a press conference that registrations had exceeded 1,000 once online participantswere included.
Unoka stressed that the forum was intended to begin a process rather than present a finished strategy. “Today is not a traditional conference. We have not gathered to listen to one another’s presentations, but to begin planning the future of mental health in Hungary together,” he said. He argued that the problems reaching psychiatric care often have roots in schools, families, workplaces, primary care, social services and local communities.
“Today is about different professions working not alongside one another, but with one another,” Unoka added. “It is about scientific evidence, professional experience and the lived experience of people affected shaping the future mental health system together.”
Health policy, the forum suggested, must link clinical care with the institutions that determine whether someone receives support before a situation becomes a crisis.
The forum’s central concern was continuity of care. Groups examined how people can reach the right level of help earlier, rather than entering the system only after a problem has become acute and requires hospital treatment.
The organizers placed prevention, early recognition, psychotherapy, community support, rehabilitation, housing and employment in the same care chain, arguing that gaps between these elements leave people without effective help until their circumstances have become more serious.
Attila Szabó, clinical vice-rector of Semmelweis University, said Hungary had reached a decisive point in psychiatric care. Demand is rising, he said, while staffing shortages, outdated infrastructure and regional inequalities continue to limit access, even as professional knowledge, research and international links have strengthened.
“The question is whether we can seize this opportunity,” Szabó said. “That depends not only on us, on the profession, but also on the decisions made outside this room.” He linked the issue particularly closely to child and adolescent care, telling the forum that “the child we care for in time today is the adult we do not lose tomorrow.”
State Secretary Szilvia Gyurkó of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Family said professionals should not describe children solely as problems to be managed, but should recognize their need for attention, care, affection and appropriate support. She also argued that digital well-being must be treated as part of child protection, education and health policy.
“Every childhood in Hungary is digital today,” Gyurkó said. “We need to learn a new language.” Families receive structured advice on physical development, she noted, but far less practical guidance about screen use or on how to become responsible digital parents.
Deputy State Secretary Éva Bódy, from the same ministry, argued that the social perspective must be present throughout psychiatric care if services are to work. She emphasized community-based support, supported living and the role of peer experts in helping people return to everyday life after acute episodes.
The National Mental Health Network is intended to give the forum a life beyond the day itself. Unoka said it should ensure that dialogue continues after the closing session, with people living with mental-health conditions and their families involved alongside experts and representative organizations. That principle was captured in the forum’s stated motto: “Nothing about them without them.”
Róbert Wernigg, president of the Hungarian Psychiatric Association, said, “The question is no longer whether mental-health reform is needed in Hungary, but how legitimate demands become action.” He added that his association and the World Health Organization were ready to support the government with professional expertise and networks.
Ledia Lazeri, regional adviser for mental health at the WHO Europe Mental Health Office, said psychiatry could not answer every need on its own. Education, social care, digitalization and employment all need an active role, she argued.
The event also made space for experience-led services. Péter Kéri, chair of the peer council at the Ébredések Foundation, said a credible reform process must include people who have lived through mental-health difficulties themselves.
“We have to accept that we have come from many places, that our ideas differ and that we have many lived experiences,” he said.
György Szekeres, head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Semmelweis University, said professional organizations had accumulated substantial knowledge about unresolved problems that had too often failed to reach decision-makers.
“The essence of open-space work is conversation,” said psychotherapist Zsolt Zalka, who introduced the group discussions and argued that the voices of psychiatry and related professions had too often gone unheard.
The organizers will now process the experiences, good practices, systemic failures and proposals raised in the 19 groups, using them as a basis for further consultations and development plans. Its success will be judged not by the size of the gathering but by whether people can obtain help earlier, move more reliably between services and receive consistent support before, during and after a mental-health crisis.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 17, 2026.
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