3.P. Workshop: The EU Joint Action on Implementation of Best Practices in the Area of Mental Health - JA ImpleMENTAL
Authors:   Organised by: NPHO (Greece), BZgA (Germany), GÖG (Austria),   Chair persons: Laura Shields-Zeeman (Netherlands)
Published: October 2021

Mental disorders are one of the greatest public health challenges in terms of prevalence, burden of disease and disability in Europe, impacting families, societies and economies. Many European countries have policies and programmes to address prevention and treatment of mental ill-health across the lifespan, however their implementation and sustainability remains a challenge. Governance and organisation of mental health services (including the process of deinstitutionalization) as well as financial resources for mental health vary significantly across Europe and there is a general trend to focus on care and treatment rather than on mental health promotion and prevention. Further, the majority countries have no suicide prevention strategies in place. The need to ensure that mental health remains high on the public health agenda in Europe has resulted in a new action taken by the EU-Commission. The Joint Action on Implementation of Best Practices in the Area of Mental Health is a collaborative initiative of 42 participating institutions from 21 European countries. Building upon the results of 15 years of EU initiatives and upon WHO strategic documents, this Joint Action beginning in Summer 2021, supports the transfer and pilot implementation of approaches, elements and tools of two good practices in mental health, with the aim to extend the benefits of these practices to participating countries. Both practices were pre-selected from the pool of the EU's Public Health Best Practice Portal, based on a participatory process involving representatives from EU Member States and other countries. The first practice from Belgium focuses on establishing local networks for mental health that strengthen community-based provision of preventive, promotive and care services across sectors, with the aim to improve access to, continuity and quality of care. The second practice, initially developed in Austria, is a multi-level suicide prevention strategy integrating universal, selective and indicated prevention interventions, adapted to local contextual factors and resources.

The workshop includes three presentations, followed by a plenary discussion. The objective is to:

Provide an overview of the main features of the Belgian and Austrian good practices; Present the process of transferring, adapting and piloting implementation of the good practices and plans for ensuring sustainability and integration of lessons learned into policies; Share early findings of the Joint Action's preparatory phase; Exchange views and experiences on community-based mental health services and suicide prevention in other (European) countries; Identify and discuss potential challenges and opportunities for implementation of the selected practices into other (national, regional and local) contexts.

Key messages

Participants will learn about the objectives, activities and first findings of the new EU-funded Joint Action on Implementation of Best Practices in the Area of Mental Health. Ideas and insights that can further enhance the work of the joint action until 2024 will be exchanged and potential linkages with other sectors, topics and sustaining health practices identified.