Spain | Spanish cabinet to spend €39 million on mental health to help suffering workforce

June 20, 2025

The Local | The Spanish Government has approved new funding for mental healthcare as new data shows that mental health sick leave among the country’s workforce has spiralled by 175% since the COVID-19 pandemic, costing taxpayers €15 billion a year.

The Spanish cabinet announced that it would spend €39 million in order to strengthen mental healthcare treatment availability in public hospitals.

It also approved another €17.83 million for the implementation of suicide prevention measures, in line with Spain’s Mental Health Action Plan 2025-2027 and the Suicide Prevention Plan 2025-2027.

According to the latest data from the 2023 National Health System Annual Report, 34% of the Spanish population has some form of mental health issue.

According to the Ministry of Health, the most common mental health problem is anxiety which affects 6.7% of the population with public health cover.

Depression is seen in 4.1% of the population and increases with age, while sleep disorders affect 5.4% of the population and also increases with age.

Psychoses overall affects 1.2%, while dementia is recorded in 3.2% of the population aged 60 and over.

The number of workers on sick leave has continued to rise since the pandemic and particularly mental health leave has risen by 175%.

The cost for the health authorities has continued to skyrocket. Public spending as a result of these absences amounts to around €15 billion per year and has increased by almost 80% since the pandemic, while the direct impact on businesses has grown by 62%, to €4.6 billion.

Particularly worrying is the incidence among young people, which has doubled in recent years.

Spaniards are also the world’s biggest consumers of anti-anxiety medication and the EU’s largest consumers of psychiatric or psychotropic medication, which includes antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, stimulants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilisers.

According to the latest report from the Bank of Spain, 4.4% of workers are currently on sick leave and in 2019 it was only 2.7%. In total, more than 1.5 million people are on temporary disability. This is equivalent to half of the public administration.

— Accurate at time of publication | June 2025

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