EMIP - Implementation of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention of Policies and Strategies in EU Member States and Applicant Countries (2004-2006)

Funded by

European Commission, DG Health and Consumers

Duration

24 months, from 2004 to 2006

Summary

Policy proposals and recommendations for promotion and prevention strategies for coping with stress, anxiety, depression and related disorders have been developed in an earlier EC funded project (2001-2003). This project is proposed to introduce and implement these strategies in Member States and in applicant countries (currently new EU Member States) by concerted action, collaboration and cohesion between the key networks and associated Member State representatives.

Objectives

To improve the mental health of Europeans by creating a coherent approach to mental health promotion and prevention and to support national implementation of policy recommendations;
To establish a linkage with the Working Party on Mental Health Information in order to collect and exchange relevant data on the burden of stress, anxiety, depression, suicide and related disorders and by this means to ascertain in Member States appropriate settings and target populations for promotion and prevention interventions;
To introduce to Member States and Applicant Countries effective and appropriate best practices developed from previous EC projects on mental health promotion and prevention of mental illnesses;
To address specifically the priority problems of stress, anxiety, depression, suicide and related disorders.

Activities and outcomes

The Consortium identified and integrated examples of best practice in the area of mental health promotion and prevention and prepared a synthesis of best practices to develop guidelines for implementation of promotion and prevention strategies for coping with stress, anxiety, depression, suicide and related disorders.
A sequence of seminars, at national and also at European level, was organised for the exchange of information with stakeholders for promotion and prevention activities focused on prevention of stress, anxiety, depression suicide and related disorders.
A benchmarking, evaluation conference was organised in March 2006 in Budapest Hungary), involving representatives of countries in which the seminars took place.