Mental health policy and practice across Europe: an overview

Promotion and prevention 205
implemented action. Some of these determinants for effective and sustained
implementation are outlined in Box 8.6, and the issues of building capacity and
engaging stakeholders are expanded in the next sections.
Box 8.6 Main determinants for effective implementation and
sustainability
Stimulate and support evidence-based decision-making
for implementation
Expand the knowledge base for mental health, through developing and
supporting information systems that develop, monitor and make knowledge
available on risk and protective factors, the mental health status
of the population, the availability of prevention, promotion and other
relevant interventions for mental health, including the development of
strategies which address gaps in evidence and new approaches to deal
with societal challenges, and support sustained monitoring and reporting.
Ensure high quality implementation of programmes
Support building capacity, through supporting training of staff and the
development of necessary skills, providing supervision and organizational
support, ensuring adequate resources, infrastructures and management
instruments for implementation, developing guidelines for high quality
implementation and engaging relevant stakeholders, including those from
other relevant sectors, by the creation of partnerships.
Support evaluation, generation and improvement of knowledge
Develop and use appropriate indicators for mental health, its determinants
and the outcomes of preventive and promotion interventions,
support process and outcome evaluation of all implemented interventions
and the evaluation of their cost-effectiveness, assess the impact of
policies on mental health, stimulate the revision and improvement of
programmes and policies on the basis of the knowledge generated and
ensure the information generated is disseminated and used accordingly.
Source: Jané-Llopis and Anderson (2005); Barry et al. (2005);
Herrman and Jané-Llopis (2005)
Building capacity and supporting implementation
The development of effective policies for mental health and an integrated
approach to action needs to be supported by their dissemination and adoption
across countries and communities, their adaptation and tailoring to new sites
and cultures, their effective implementation, the evaluation and monitoring of