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Health Systems and Policy Monitor (HSPM)

An innovative platform that provides a detailed description of health systems and provides up-to-date information on reforms and changes that are particularly policy relevant.
For detailed information on country policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2021, see our separate COVID-19 Health Systems Response Monitor (HSRM).

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Luxembourg

Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profile

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  1. Country Overview

  2. Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profile

    1. Introduction
      1. Introduction
      2. Geography and sociodemography
      3. Economic context
      4. Political context
      5. Health status
    2. Organization and governance
      1. Introduction
      2. Historical background
      3. Organization
      4. Decentralization and centralization
      5. Planning
      6. Intersectorality
      7. Health information systems
      8. Regulation
      9. Person-centred care
    3. Financing
      1. Introduction
      2. Health expenditure
      3. Sources of revenue and financial flows
      4. Overview of the statutory financing system
      5. Out of pocket payments
      6. Voluntary health insurance
      7. Other financing
      8. Payment mechanisms
    4. Physical and human resources
      1. Introduction
      2. Physical resources
      3. Human resources
    5. Provision of Services

      Updated: 07 August 2025
      1. Introduction
      2. Public health

        Updated: 07 August 2025
      3. Patient pathways
      4. Primary care
      5. Specialized care
      6. Urgent and emergency care
      7. Pharmaceutical care
      8. Rehabilitation / intermediate care
      9. Long term care
      10. Services for informal carers
      11. Palliative care
      12. Mental health care

        Updated: 07 August 2025
      13. Dental care
    6. Principal health reforms
      1. Introduction
      2. Analysis of recent reforms
      3. Future developments
    7. Assessment of the health system
      1. Introduction
      2. Health system governance
      3. Accessibility
      4. Financial protection
      5. Health care quality
      6. Health system outcomes
      7. Health system efficiency
    8. Conclusions
      1. Introduction

Mental health care

In Luxembourg, mental health care is provided by psychiatrists (including child psychiatrists) and psychotherapists working in private practices. All general hospitals have specialized psychiatric services, which are closely linked to community-based outpatient care facilities that provide psychiatric and mental health care (see Box5.5).

Box5.5

Who is involved in providing psychiatric care in Luxembourg?

The M3S oversees the organization of mental health care, whereas services are provided either on an FFS scheme with reimbursement from the SHI or with financing support from the M3S in the form of conventional agreements (see section 3.7.1).

In the early 1990s there were several reforms aimed at decentralizing and deinstitutionalizing mental health care and developing outpatient services at the regional and community levels. Following these reforms, further legislations and regulations were adopted, notably, to better safeguard human rights with the overhauled legislation on involuntary hospital admission and treatment of persons with mental disorders (2009) (Mémorial A263, 2010); to enhance patient access to psychotherapy with the law creating the profession of psychotherapist (2015) and the Grand-Ducal Regulation introducing psychotherapist consultations upon prescription into the SHI benefits basket (2023); and to tackle stigmatization and discrimination towards mental disorders with the psychiatric reform (2005) that deinstitutionalized psychiatric care and further developed outpatient services at the community level (Rössler & Koch, 2005).

Additionally, the national action plan for suicide prevention (2015–2019) included various recurrent actions against discrimination and stigma of mental disorders. Mental health and well-being are also addressed in other non-psychiatric care or non-health-related plans, such as the Youth Action Plan (2022–2025), the National Drug Strategy and Action Plan (2020–2024), the action plan to tackle the misuse of alcohol (2020–2024), and the National Dementia Plan (2013). More recently, the government endorsed a dedicated National Mental Health Plan for the period 2024–2028. This plan was crafted following international guidelines (WHO, 2021) with the participation of a broad range of stakeholders. It addresses, with targeted measures, the current challenges for mental health care (including mental health workforce shortages, especially for children and young adults, and lack of data to assess population’s mental health status, needs, and the mental health system’s performance). Hence, it focuses on mental health care governance, implementing an information system, enhancing mental disorders and health care research and evidence generation, promoting mental care and preventing mental disorders across all age groups, improving mental health care supply and patients’ access, and better responding to the health needs of particularly vulnerable groups.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple websites were set up by a wide range of institutions to support individuals’ mental health. In parallel, a mental health first-aid training was launched in 2020 to teach individuals how to identify mental disorders, respond effectively to the mental illness of others, and contribute to a caring society. This training is an essential measure that contributed to improving mental health literacy in the general population and reducing stigmatization; since its start, 3000 first aiders and 60 certified instructors have been trained.

In April 2025, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Education introduced new rules to limit the use of smartphones and similar devices in schools as part of its Screen-Life-Balance campaign, aimed at reducing negative effects of excessive screen time on students’ mental health, academic performance and social development. Under the new regulation, primary schools and after-school care facilities must ban device use throughout the day, including breaks. Exceptions are only allowed for educational or medical purposes. From June 2025, public secondary schools must implement a minimum requirement ensuring physical separation between students and devices during lessons. Each secondary school can define its own policy in consultation with its school community. While 16% of secondary schools apply the minimum requirement, 71% adopted stricter measures (for example, limits by location or age), and 13% have implemented full-day bans. Additional measures include content filters, age-based Wi-Fi access and guided iPad use in educational settings. The pilot project Digital Well-being am Lycée in high schools supports teens in managing social media responsibly.
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