4858 Mental Health Report - National University of Ireland, Galway

Conclusions and Recommendations
7
Given the breadth and complexity of the field of mental health promotion,
covering a wide range of topics, settings, populations and strategies, there is a
need for innovative and effective strategies and policies to address these issues
comprehensively. As may be seen from the selected projects profiled in this
report, the areas covered span support for people with cancer, postnatal
depression, public awareness of suicide, mental health of young men and rural
communities. The search for more effective and efficient strategies to work
collaboratively across the Irish border on the development, implementation,
evaluation and dissemination of mental health promotion programmes and
strategies is a key challenge for the next decade.
Based on the examination of the information gathered in the course of this
project, a number of issues are highlighted for further consideration and key
recommendations are made.
Added Value of Collaboration
A first condition of effective cross-border collaboration is to reflect on the
reasons why collaboration is needed and what kind of added value could be
expected from such efforts. Insight into the different goals of cross-border
collaboration could help to assess and improve the quality of current activities. As
pointed out by Hosman (2000) in relation to international collaborative efforts:
In order to make significant progress in addressing health problems of all
kinds in the coming decades, significant progress must be made in breaking
down the barriers to effective international collaboration and in
developing, disseminating, and implementing science- and evidence-based
prevention and health promotion programs, strategies and policies.
In view of the insufficient resources for research and the development of
effective policies and programmes in the mental health promotion area, it makes
sense to pool knowledge, expertise and resources. There are a wide range of
mental health issues for which promotion and preventive efforts are needed. In
order to tackle these issues comprehensively, the development and
implementation of integrated strategies are needed rather than isolated and
once off developments. The findings from this report suggest that for successful
cross-border collaboration in this area there needs to be support at a high
political level. Co-operation on health promotion is on the agenda of the
North/South Ministerial Council and over the past number of years co-operation
at the level of exchange of information and experiences has taken place. It is now
timely to give greater visibility to mental health promotion on this agenda and to
agree strategically on priority areas and the types of support needed for cooperation
in terms of formal structures and dedicated funding.
Building on Lessons Learnt
In order to facilitate cross-fertilisation and the dissemination of
knowledge and expertise, it is critical to build on the
experiences and lessons learnt to date. From the overview of
current work, it appears that there may be a number of
123