"Mental health is a priority of the government's from a medical, social and political point of view", the Romanian health minister Eugen Nicolaescu said last weekend when launching the "Initiative for Quality" programme. This is the first national project on the modernization of the mental hospitals in Romania, authored by the National Center for Mental Health. The project lasts from September 8 to December 3, 2007 and it regards 9 mental hospitals. The health minister opined there still were persisting deficiencies, especially in terms of specialized medical care and support for mentally disabled children and grown-ups. In Romania there is no data on the number of the mentally disturbed as in the last 18 years there has been achieved no epidemiological research. Still experts estimate a mental problem may emerge in 30% of the population. (C.P.)