Partnership projects

Analysis of the determinants of mental health and mental ill-health from existing sources (University of Leicester, England)

This project aims at searching existing sources for evidence of key factors affecting the frequency of mental disorders and related phenomena in adult populations, which may be susceptible to preventive intervention. There is still clear need to analyse the importance of the different determinants for mental health on the one side, and for mental ill-health on the other. The outcome of this project is a report describing these determinants and giving recommendations on their most appropriate indicators within the EU context. The project also has close connections with the project being responsible for implementation of interventions aiming at promoting mental health and preventing depression, suicide and related disorders.

Examination and development of the mental health monitoring systems in the new Member States (Public Health Institute of the Republic of Slovenia)

This project intends to improve understanding of differences and similarities between the old and new EU Member States. The main objectives of the project are to investigate and provide an overview on presence of main mental public health concerns (suicide behaviour, alcohol misuse and unemployment, all in relation to mental health), and to carry out a systematic review of mental health policies and systems in the new Member States. The project also functions as a pilot exercise for how to approach health policies and systems in the enlargement process. The outcome is a better understanding of these aspects which is needed to develop relevant European Union level policies and actions in the near future.

Monitoring positive mental health (University of Deusto, Spain)

This project devises and promotes a system of indicators of positive mental health for different levels of social systems. It also plans a system for monitoring the impact of policies and programmes promoting mental health, with a specific view on exploring the barriers to implementation. The project takes into account different sectors (e.g. educational system, employment and labour market, social services and housing, justice system, primary health care systems) and levels (community, institutional, regional, and national). The project also has close connections to the other projects within MINDFUL that are dealing with positive mental health and mental health promotion.

Establishment and provision of a training system on mental health promotion and prevention of mental ill-health (Radboud University, The Netherlands)

This project developes and implements a training package to develop capacity in Europe on strategies, development and implementation of mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention interventions such as those aiming to reduce depression, anxiety or suicide. The training is built on the evidence provided by reviews of existing best practices and on the science of programme development and implementation. The training modules focus on two different aspects of mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention- They provide a state of the art package for developing capacity on mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention across all EU Member States.

Setting up a system for monitoring service utilisation data (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Austria)

This project analyses the existing systems of collecting and reporting mental health service use data on different levels: a) the institutional level of the services, b) the organisational level of health service providers and financiers, c) the regional level within one country, d) the country level, and e) the international level. The project aims at identifying weaknesses and strengths in these systems, especially concerning their meaningfulness. Eventually, the project suggests improvements in order to arrive at a practicable, reliable, useful and meaningful reporting system of mental health services utilisation data, which could be implemented first in the six participating countries, and which is based on available information technologies, in order to provide reliable, useful and meaningful data on the EU level.

Improvement of the currently available mental health survey and reporting methods (MGEN, Foundation for Public Health, France)

This project aims at setting up a system across EU Member States, which allows monitoring of mental health on a regular basis using suitable methodologies and instruments for the whole population. This work is integrated into the indicators from other sources. The project also takes into account elements of comparability of the mental surveys conducted in the participating countries, facilitates the monitoring of prevention and care and allows their evaluation. This project enhances visibility and capacity of comparisons for any mental health data from surveys across EU and helps monitoring and comparison of tendencies between the Member States.