EU-Horizon Europe funded 5-year MENTBEST project starts
Protecting mental health in times of change
EU-Horizon Europe funded 5-year MENTBEST project starts
Europe is in a time of dramatic change - war, economic crisis, climate change, migration, digitalisation, pandemics, ageing and demographic change. These megatrends can negatively impact people’s psychological health and wellbeing – with vulnerable groups being at particular risk.
MENTBEST will design, deliver and validate proven community-based interventions and innovative technologies to prevent and mitigate the mental health challenges associated with dramatic and rapid change in Europe. MENTBEST will focus on five vulnerable groups: migrants/refugees, older people, younger people, long-term unemployed, and those with mental disorders.
Professor Ulrich Hegerl, MENTBEST Project Coordinator and President of the European Alliance Against Depression, explains:
‘The ambition of MENTBEST is to increase resilience and self-help competencies of people most often left behind in times of rapid and dramatic societal changes.’
What exactly will MENTBEST deliver?
MENTBEST will deliver a new comprehensive community-based intervention programme to communities in five different countries: Albania, Estonia, Greece, Ireland and Spain. This new programme will build on the proven community-based 4-level intervention programme of the European Alliance against Depression (EAAD), already used to address depression and prevent suicide in 17 European countries.
Innovative technology in the form of an app driven by artificial intelligence, will also be designed, developed and trialled in MENTBEST – with the goal of enabling people to use their long-term smartphone-generated data to aid their mental health self-management. This app will be tested in Denmark, Germany and Spain.
Proven expertise from 17 project partners
MENTBEST is a 5-year, 7 million Euro project led by the European Alliance Against Depression with a further 13 partners from across Europe. The extensive and multidisciplinary expertise of the MENTBEST consortium includes leading experts in mental health promotion, resilience, wellbeing and primary prevention of disorders, mental disorders and suicide prevention, mental health in the workplace, mental health in children and adolescents, mental health in old age and experts in e-mental health and support technology, public policy, public education and evaluation.
For further inquiries, please contact
European Alliance against Depression e.V.
Coordination Center
Dr. Katharina Schnitzspahn
Tel: 0049 341 223 874 71
Mail: katharina.schnitzspahn@eaad.net
Press Contact
Prof. José Luis Ayuso Mateos
Tel: 0034 91 497 24 47
Mail: dissemination.mentbest@uam.es
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.