Claude spent 6 years of his life locked in a psychiatric hospital in France. In nearby Italy the psychiatric hospitals with detention facilities had been outlawed for some years already.

Eivor is 93; he is Swedish. Wera is 15 years younger, but life for her in Poland, with a different health care system and a different pension system is much more difficult.

Eight days of Health in Europe is a long travel around the old continent. A travel among different countries, different health issues and different ways to treat the same conditions or deal with the same emergency. Each episode is a compelling story, produced by one broadcaster in three to five countries, to compare the different situations related to the same health issue.

Be it the struggle among smokers vs. non smokers in countries like Ireland, where smoking is restricted, or Greece, where smoking is easier than not doing it... Be it the different national strategies to counteract the comeback of Tuberculosis. Be it the incidence of heart problems in Europe decreasing steadily if you move South-East. What is it that changes so radically from North-Western countries? Diet? Lifestyle? The water? The Air?

Each story is driven by personal accounts of patients and of the people around them.

All in all the series covers 17 different European countries. The eight films are:

• The Madman next Door (on mental health);

• One Cigarette away (on smoking and addiction);

• The black Hole of Childhood (on post-traumatic stress disorders);

• Land without Children (on birth rates);

• Third Age (on elderly people);

• At the Heart of Europe (on heart disease);

• Tuberculosis, the Spectre is back (on tuberculosis);

• Europe = XXL (on obesity);

The series is part of Health in Europe, an initiative of cooperation among EBU members, comprising an exchange of TV programmes, animations and online content to be found on www.healthineurope.net.

Health in Europe received funding from the European Union within the frame of the Public Health Programme.