ImpleMENTAL Joint Action is a three-year joint action project involving 21 European countries. It aims to support partners in developing and implementing better strategies and interventions in the field of mental health promotion, prevention of mental disorders and community mental health services.
Project Website: https://ja-implemental.eu/
The project aims to strengthen public mental health through innovative and sustainable changes in the (mental) health system. The latter will be achieved through individual-centred systemic changes and integrated approaches that will increase the efficiency of the mental health care system, increase the integration of different mental health stakeholders and between different levels of management of mental health care systems. This will be achieved by transferring good practices from Belgium (reform of the mental health care system) and Austria (suicide prevention programme).
The main objective of the project is to transfer two recognised good practices to the domestic environment: Belgian reforms of the mental health care system and the Austrian national suicide prevention programme. The project supports international knowledge exchange and mutual learning and promotes cooperation between mental health professions. The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) participates in the transfer of both practices into the Slovenian environment.
The first good practice to be transposed by the project is the reform of the mental health care system in Belgium. This reform places the service user at the heart of the service network, enabling them to use resources efficiently according to their needs. It is based on the principle of deinstitutionalisation, which implies the transition from care primarily provided in health institutions to community-based care in order to improve mental health outcomes, quality of life and avoid unnecessary hospitalisation. The reform promotes the rehabilitation and reintegration of users into society, cross-sectoral networking of services and the strengthening of hospital care (intensive hospital care that allows for shorter housing and treatment through intensive care programmes).
Another good practice is Austria’s national suicide prevention programme (SUPRA). The SUPRA programme aims to support people at risk, restrict access to suicidal funds, raise awareness of suicide, cooperate with the media to report suicide responsibly, integrate suicide prevention programmes into other health promotion programmes, and support the research into suicidal behaviour.
The JA ImpleMENTAL project aims to achieve goals that are consistent with the MIRA programme. Therefore, participation in the project brings us additional knowledge and experience from the international environment and strengthens the conditions for the sustainable implementation of good practices foreseen in the MIRA programme. In the three-year project period ending in 2024, based on experience from Austria and other countries, we are building on existing suicide prevention measures (participation with the media) and at the same time starting to develop new ones (restricting access to suicide funds). In addition, based on experience and innovative approaches from Belgium, we bring together users and service providers and other mental health stakeholders in two local settings to create a common network to share experiences and needs and foster cooperation and growth in the local environment.
As a manager of the National Mental Health Programme from 2018 to 2028, the NIJZ carries out activities that overlap in content and technical terms with the activities carried out in the JA. By participating in the project, the competences of experts at the NIJZ are increased, while at the same time the implementation of the National Mental Health Programme is simplified. Mental health in Slovenia faces a number of challenges, which we intend to address with the transfer of good practices from abroad, which will be in line with the National Mental Health Programme, which also ensures the sustainability of the changes introduced. Slovenia is still among the countries that record the highest number of deaths due to suicide. This is only one of the burdens caused by insufficient care for the protection and strengthening of the mental health of the inhabitants of Slovenia. Participation in JA enables progress in the area described.
In 2022, as part of the project, we carried out most of the tasks that fall into the pre-implementation phase of the project. We actively supported partners in carrying out tasks in horizontal packages. In the field of pilot implementation of Belgian good practice (WP 5), we carried out a series of virtual visits, where we learned about the peculiarities of their approach. We obtained data to assess the situation and needs in Slovenia and, on the basis of the latter, prepared a proposal for a pilot intervention. For the purpose of evaluating the WP 5 activities, we have developed the Theory of Change model in cooperation with our partners.
In the field of transfer of good practice of the Austrian suicide prevention programme (WP 6), we participated in regular Q&A meetings, actively contributed to the implementation of training (in the field of needs assessment and in the field of crisis phones) and prepared a proposal for pilot interventions. The latter was based on the data we obtained for the purpose of assessing the situation and needs. For the purpose of evaluating the WP 6 activities, we have developed the Theory of Change model in cooperation with our partners.
Project Duration: 1 October 2021–30 September 2024
Supporting Organisation: National Public Health Organisation, Greece
Project Partners: 40 partners, including National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ)
Funding: HaDEA
Using knowledge to achieve better health.
