Enhancing suicide prevention measures
Supported by EU funding, the 'Optimizing suicide prevention programs and their implementation in Europe' (OSPI-EUROPE) project aimed to provide stakeholders, health politicians and the European Commission with an efficient and evidence-based suicide prevention concept. Consortium members, representing 14 institutions from 10 European countries, implemented a state-of-the-art intervention programme on suicide prevention in 4 European model regions. Building on concepts and materials developed within the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), they covered five areas of focus. Level 1 involved the education and training of primary care physicians, and Level 2 covered public awareness. Level 3 targeted training opportunities for community facilitators (e.g. priests, social workers, teachers and the media). Level 4 involved offers for high-risk groups and support for self-help activities and relatives, and Level 5 entailed the restriction of lethal means. Consultations with key players and a thorough review and evaluation of published reports of prevention programmes informed the development of this state-of-the-art intervention concept. Cross-national differences in suicide rates were considered, and a comparative analysis was carried out of possible explanations for these differences and their related aspects. This analysis facilitated the appropriate adaptation of intervention programmes to specific situations in different European regions. OSPI-EUROPE implemented its comparable multilevel community-based prevention intervention across countries with diverse EU health systems and socio-cultural characteristics. For each country – Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Portugal — two specific population regions were selected, one for intervention and the other for control. The project team evaluated suicide prevention efficacy and intermediate outcomes, as well as implementation processes and health economic aspects. Although difficulties present in proving effectiveness for every possible measure, the multilevel intervention approach and evaluations offer insight into the mechanisms and measures involved: which are redundant or have potential for optimisation. On the basis of evaluation results, project partners developed a newly optimised and improved intervention concept. Intensive dissemination and public relations activities constituted an important part of project work, helping to reach the broader public, the scientific community, policymakers and stakeholders at both national and EU levels. Overall, OSPI-EUROPE contributed to comprehensive and evidence-based recommendations for implementing sustainable suicide preventive measures.
