I spoke to my FAA medical examiner about this. He is a senior guy who attends all the FAA medical conferences. He said 10% of the population is depressed, so they assume pilots are the same ratio. When they de refer guys to the psychiatric evaluator it take several evaluations and after 8 hours they are only beginning to peel back the outer layer of the problems. So if you think in your 30 min medical they can determine if you are a danger to the general public it is impossible.
But the EU is now moving to the FAA model and allowing pilots who do have mental health issues to continue flying. As long as it is treated and monitored. The worst thing is to ban all issues as you would effectively end +10% of pilot careers, pilots would hide medical issues and not seek treatment. Apparently they are 7 medications that are approved like zoloft.
We have all flown with crazy guys at every airlines. Some are always bonkers some a life event makes them flip out. The most important thing is for airlines to take it seriously and get pilots the medical treatment/therapy they need.
If a pilot has one other pilot with and avoid flying with scheduling that is normal, but if it is +10% of the crews there is a problem and it needs to be flagged.
Punishing someone with a problem by firing them is going to make it worse. Mental health issues need to be treated. Not just pilots everyone from school students to postal workers.
Oh yes, pay cuts career stagnation furlough and loss of pensions just makes thousands of pilots stressed. The FAA could ban that.