Yesterday, I have delivered a keynote talk on Gaming Disorder to an interested audience of researchers, mental health practitioners, and government officials in Slovenia in the ‘National Conference on the Management of Non-Chemical Addictions’ (Nacionalna Konferenca Obvladovanja Nekemičnih Zasvojenosti), organised in the context of Slovenia’s pioneering National Mental Health Programme (MIRA - Nacionalni program duševnega zdravja), which is supported by the National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia (Nacionalni Inštitut za javno zdravje).

For a number of years now, Slovenia has been pioneering nation-wide research, prevention and treatment initiatives for behavioural addictions via its public health policies, mental health charities, and other public and private stakeholders.

The conference was insightful as it provided an opportunity to discuss the issue of behavioural addictions and broader mental health with different experts from Slovenia. It is clear that public health and mental health need a multidisciplinary approach where there is transparency in the sharing of resources and information alongside an effort towards creating synergy between the different public and private organisations who are interested in nothing else but delivering mental health care to those in need.

The projects being currently developed in Slovenia are in my view leading and should serve as an example to many other countries interested in tackling the issue of behavioural addictions from an evidence-based perspective.

A special thanks to Dr. Špela Selak, Mark Zmavc, Sanja Tkalec, and Tamara Arh who have all worked very hard to put up such an amazing conference.

Stay tuned and follow me on Mastodon and Twitter for real-time updates on what’s happening next!