OSPI-EUROPE · Optimizing suicide prevention programs and their implementation in Europe

Suicide is a serious public health problem in the EU calling for effective interventions. The aim of this project is to provide EU member states with an evidence based prevention concept, concrete materials and instruments for running and evaluating these interventions and recommendations for the proper implementation of the intervention. These aims will be achieved by the following objectives: > Analysis of differences in suicide rates among European countries and harmonisation of procedures for definition, assessment and evaluation of suicidality > Development of a state of the art intervention concept for the prevention of suicidality that considers current evidence-based best practices and international experiences with multilevel interventions, such as that of the European Alliance Against Depression > Implementation of comparable multilevel community based prevention interventions in four European model regions > Evaluation of the interventions in a pre-post, controlled and cross-nationally comparable design concerning effectiveness with respect to both suicides and non-fatal suicidal acts, efficiency (including health economic evaluations), involved processes and finally the interplay between the single intervention measures > Distribution of an optimised suicide preventive intervention concept, corresponding materials and instruments, and recommendations for implementation to policy makers and stakeholders