To implement regional community-based four-level programmes with the aim of improving the care of depressed patients and to reduce suicidality in different European countries.

The interventions took place on four different levels complementary to each other: (1) educating general practitioners in recognizing and treating depression, (2) raising public awareness for depression (3) training community facilitators (such as priests, social workers, or teachers) about depression, and (4) offering support to high risk groups. In two project phases 17 EAAD partners a) established first a local Alliance Against Depression with the described 4-level approach and then b) started to extend the activities to other regions in the respective countries.

The EAAD strategy and actions largely base on the results and experiences from the “Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression” that showed a significant reduction (−24%) of suicidal acts. Evaluation within EAAD showed that EAAD material can be readily adapted to different cultures. The strong bottom-up approach helps community members to identify with the local alliance against depression and this boosts motivation and civil commitment as well as self-help. EAAD intervention is also well accepted by the partners as well as the public which can be shown in positive echoes from the media and in ongoing requests for being supported by EAAD in implementing their own local alliance against depression.

EAAD's 4-level approach reduces suicidal acts and can be implemented across a range of different countries (with different health care systems) with and within different local contexts.

Slovenia is a country with a very high suicide rate. Unfortunately, there is a lack of primary suicide prevention programmes.

Our main objective was to develop suicide prevention programmes, which would decrease suicide rate in Slovenia. We would achieve that by increasing awareness and knowledge of different professionals, who address or come in contact with the most vulnerable risk groups.

Firstly we identified school counselors, family doctors and media as professionals to target. School counselors have an important gatekeeper’s role in youth suicide prevention and family doctors are of a similar importance for elderly population. Besides, media has a significant influence on any at-risk person regarding suicide prevention. Secondly, we prepared manuals with practical guidelines: for school counselors - how to recognize and deal with suicidal youth, for family doctors - how to recognize and treat depression and suicidal behavior among elderly, and for media representatives - how to responsibly report about suicide. Lastly, we performed 1-day workshops for all gatekeepers’ groups covering the contents of the manuals.

All the initiatives received highly positive expert-reviews and a lot of encouraging feedbacks from participants. An evaluation with pre-post questionnaire showed that participants’ feelings of competency in dealing with suicidal person have improved after the involvement in programmes’ workshops and reading the manuals.

Experiences showed that primary suicide prevention programmes are highly appreciated and we believe that is necessary to continue and deepen the work in this area also in the future.

Individuals with mental health problems, especially those hospitalized in mental health institutions, are particularly vulnerable to violations of their Human Rights. There are a number of special laws and regulations in different European countries and on the international level regarding the rights of people with mental health problems, however there are many instances in which their rights continue to be violated. In order to respect their Human Rights, it is necessary to study and to address the negative attitudes that the general (or even professional) public may hold toward the people with such problems.

This research aims to reveal and compare the attitudes toward mentally ill people in different countries (Romania, Czech Republic, Nigeria and Serbia). Also, within the project we will develop a workshop to address these attitudes.

The Opinion about Mental Illness Scale (OMI) for measuring attitudes was used. We used the pre-post study design to evaluate changes of attitudes because of the involvement in the intervention workshop. Students in the area of psychology, medicine or similar or general public took place in 90-minutes workshop, which was developed from the stories of people suffering from mental illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia), and their family perceptions and attitudes.

The pilot study showed a great acceptance of this kind of interventions among students. Besides, the structure of the workshop, the response of the audience, participation rate and first results of the evaluation will be presented.

Peer relationships play a critical role in the development of adolescents, not only for the acquisition of social skills but also for the sense of personal identity and competence. Thus the quality of peer relationships influences actual and future mental health of the adolescent.

SEYLE (Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe) is a randomized controlled trial, funded by the EU, evaluating interventions for mental health promotion and suicide prevention. The study comprised 12,395 high-school students from 11 European countries.

We investigated the differences on psychological problems between students with poor and good peer relationships.

1,195 adolescents (mean age 15.3 ± 0.6; 68% females) from the Molise region constituted the Italian sample. Adolescents were identified as with poor peer relationships if they never or just sometimes get along with people of their age, feel that peers like having them in the group and feel that peers were kind and helpful. Psychometric measures were used to assess mental health problems such as depression (Beck Depression Inventory II), anxiety (Zung Self-Assessment Anxiety Scale), well-being (WHO-5) and suicidal ideation (Paykel Suicide Scale).

Adolescents who reported poor peer relationships scored significantly higher (p < .005) on the scales assessing depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation and significantly lower (p < .001) on the WHO-5.

Particularly in adolescence peer relationships may influence psychological well-being and vice versa mental health influences the openness to the others. So promoting mental health and contemporary improve social skills could lead adolescents to a better life.

Smoking among adolescents is still a major public health problem and a global concern. Early onset and long-term smoking are associated with physical and psychological health problems.

To identify risk factors and comorbidities for occasional and daily smoking among European adolescents.

In the context of the Europe-wide 'Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe” (SEYLE) study we surveyed 12,328 youths at the age of 13 to 17 from 11 countries. We applied questions from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey to determine nicotine consumption as well as other risk behaviors. Psychiatric symptoms were assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Becks Depression Inventory-II, the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale,the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory and the Paykel Suicide Scale.

On average 30.9% of adolescents reported daily smoking and the onset of smoking was reported by 35.3% between the age of 12 and 13 already. Multinomial logistic regression model showed significant correlations between adolescent smoking and migration background, living in single parent households, no physical activity, parental smoking and physical fights. Further it revealed significant associations of adolescent smoking with alcohol consumption, illegal drug use, anxiety, conduct problems, hyperactivity, suicidal ideation, self-injury and internet-dependence.

Our data show that adolescent smoking is associated with psychosocial factors, especially family setting and parental behaviors. Further, smoking and psychiatric problems are highly correlated. Therefore, early preventive measures are necessary and essential not only for adolescents but also for their parents.

Truancy is a serious public health problem that affects adolescents from all countries around the world. It negatively affects almost every aspect in the life, including physical, mental health, social and economical conditions. Young who are habitual truants are more likely to engage in at-risk behaviour like suicidal behaviours.

This analysis investigated the prevalence of truancy and suicidal behaviours in the Italian sample.

to reduce truancy among European adolescents improving mental health in European high schools.

the WE- STAY intervention carried out in 6 different European Countries. In Italy a sample of 2265 High school students (mean age 15.6±0,6; 64,4% females) was selected. Baseline evaluation of students' lifestyle, coping styles, at-risk truancy, suicidal behaviour and mental health issues was collected using a structured questionnaire.

6% has been absent from school for 7 days or more without a valid excuse during the past year (6.6% male); 20,3% as considered as truant student (three or more skipped days per month without a valid excuse in the past year). 4,6% have seriously considered taking own life during past 2 weeks have thought about suicide, and 1,2% tried to take own life in past 2 weeks. The analysis showed as correlation between skipped school and suicidal behaviour (p < .001)

Teens engaging in risk behaviours are at increased odds of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts (Hallfors et al. 2004). The preliminary We-Stay data confirm the prevalence of at-risk behaviours is higher among truant students.

Truancy negatively affects almost every aspect in the life, including physical, mental health, social and economical conditions.

To implement and evaluate outcomes of three different kinds of intervention against truancy. A mechanistic intervention to stop truancy will be used as control.

To reduce truancy among European adolescents improving mental health in European high schools.

The WE- STAY intervention carried out in 6 different European Countries. In Italy a sample of 2265 High school students (mean age 15.6 ± 0,6; 64,4% females) was selected. The students were randomized into one of four different intervention arms. Baseline evaluation of students' lifestyle, coping styles, at-risk truancy, self-harm behaviours and mental health issues was collected using a structured questionnaire.

6% has been absent from school for 7 days or more without a valid excuse during the past year. 55,0% of the sample has smoked cigarettes; 7,2% drank alcohol 4 or more time during the week (13,9% male and 3,4% female). About the use of drugs, 17,4% of them used drugs at least once in a lifetime. 16% of the students started a fight at least once in a lifetime.

Truancy is often related to mental health problems and at-risk behaviours. The truancy has been the focus of a different policy initiatives, often ended in failure. Through the implementation of WE-STAY is possible to acquire more data on truancy prevalence and its correlated psycho-social and psychiatric aspects, as well as information on school and parents attitudes toward this phenomenon.

Police officers are important gatekeepers in suicide prevention, but at the same time, cases of suicidal behaviour and suicides are, among other deaths, one of the most stressful parts of their job. Police trustees are a special group of police officers who offer support to their colleagues in ambiguous or stressful cases.

The objective of this study was to educate and train the police trustees on suicide prevention and help them dealing with the suicide related situations. Besides, we aimed to evaluate the effects of the intervention.

13 police trustees (Mage = 39,23 years; SDage = 16,23) participated in our 1-day workshop. We used a pre-post evaluation design with both quantitative and qualitative questions. We used Perceived Stress Scale PSS (Cohen et al., 1983), and additional questions on self-perceived competence and anxiety regarding suicide related situations as evaluation tools.

Preliminary results show that according to the questionnaire's norms, four participants reported slightly higher level of perceived stress prior to our training. Further on, most common answers on self-perceived competence questions were either moderately or quite competent in suicide related situations, but participants also feel moderately to severely anxious in these situations. Our workshop met the expectations of a vast majority (86%) of attendees.

In our opinion, preliminary results show a great need for further cooperation with the police in suicide prevention initiatives. Follow up evaluation will serve as an indicator of the workshop's efficacy and will serve as guideline for its improvement.

According to previous studies the prevalence of adolescent depression is 4–8% both in the USA and Europe. the aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of adolescent depression separately in several European countries.

Data were drawn from the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) study, which included 11 countries (Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Romania, Slovenia and Spain) and Sweden served as the coordinating centre. Depression was measured by the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Adolescents with a score of 20 or greater on the BDI-II were defined as depressed. Multiple imputations were conducted to address missing data.

Out of 14,115 students who consented to participate, finally 12,395 adolescents (5,568 (44.92%) boys and 6,827 (55.08%) girls) were enrolled into the study. the mean age of the students was 14.81 years (SD = .83). Significant differences were detected in the ratio of non-depressed and depressed adolescents among countries (χ2(20) = 385.352 p = .000). the prevalence of depressed adolescents ranged from 7.1% to 19.4%. the prevalence of depressed adolescents according to country in increasing order is: Hungary: 7.1%, Austria: 7.6%, Romania: 7.6%, Estonia: 7.9%, Ireland: 8.5%, Spain: 8.6%, Italy: 9.2%, Slovenia: 11.4%, Germany: 12.9%, France: 15.4%, Israel: 19.4%.

Based on a screening tool our data underlines the importance of taking account country specific prevalence rates of adolescent depression.

Knowledge about signs and treatment of mental illnesses is often not enough to seek professional help. Hence, it is important to gain understanding of other determinants, i.e. attitudes, stigma, which influence help-seeking behaviour.

Based on Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour, we aimed at collecting data of determinants known to be related to behavioural action, in our case help seeking.

To examine how attitudes, stigma and normative believes influence help seeking behaviour and whether these determinants differ in relation to demographic data and mental health indicators of the respondents’ region.

A representative sample of adult Slovene population (n = 594) was recruited via an on-line invitation. They were asked to (i) provide basic demographic data (region, age, gender, mental health history…) and (ii) to complete the inventory of attitudes toward seeking mental health services. The inventory variables (attitudes, knowledge and stigma) were linked to demographic data and mental health indicators in Slovenia.

The respondents dispose of good knowledge of where and when to seek help either for themselves or others. However, the readiness to seek help was significantly lower, in particular so in men, younger, single persons and respondents from regions with lower mental health indicators. Accordingly, stigma was significantly higher pronounced in the same groups. More than 50% of respondents have already experienced mental distress, however only 25% have sought help.

Reasons for this “help seeking gap” should be further scrutinized. Future interventions shall be focused on changing attitudes and destigmatization mental health issues.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.