[The "European Alliance Against Depression". An European network targeting at effective care in community-based services for persons suffering from depressive disorders]

Abstract

Action programmes fostering partnerships and bringing together regional and national authorities to promote the care of depressed patients are urgently needed. In 2001 the "Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression" was initiated as a community-based model project within the large-scaled "German Research Network on Depression and Suicidality" (Kompetenznetz "Depression, Suizidalitdät") which was funded by the German Federal Ministry on Education and Research. The "Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression" was a 4-level action programme, conducted in the city of Nuremberg (500,000 inhabitants) and addressing 4 parallel intervention levels. The project has been evaluated both with respect to a 1-year baseline and a control region (city of Würzburg). With confirmatory statistics a significant reduction of suicidal behaviour by more than 20% was observed. Based on these positive results the "German Alliance Against Depression" was founded in 2002, which coordinates the implementation of similar intervention programmes all over Germany and within German-speaking regions of Switzerland, Austria and Italy. In 2004 18 international partners representing 16 different countries, a WHO work group and a professional IT-partner established the "European Alliance Against Depression". Supported by the European Commission an international network has been built up. In 2006, two further partners joined the EAAD network. The successful basic principle of an action-oriented programme that intervenes on various levels and utilises knowledge and expertise of an international network of experts in combination with a number of established regional activities forms the core principle of EAAD. During the next months the regional campaigns and already existing networks will be expanded to other regions and--where possible--to national level. Future EAAD intervention activities and regional campaigns will aim at special target groups to a higher degree, especially focusing on prevention of depressive disorders and suicidal behaviour among children and adolescents. Overall, EAAD may serve as an example of how European community based "best practice" models for improving the care of depressed patients and suicidal persons can be implemented using a bottom-up approach (starting from a regional model project to a national expansion of activities and policy relevant recommendations). The European Commission presented the EAAD project as one of the most promising strategies in the area of mental health at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Mental Health in Helsinki and listed EAAD in its Green Paper "Improving the mental health of the population: Towards a strategy on mental health for the European Union".