Enhancing Mental Health: Lessons Learned and Future Directions
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Presentation Transcript
Richard Wynne, WRC on behalf of the project team Final ProMenPol statement PROMENPOLConference 2009
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Final ProMenPol statement • Lessons learned from the project • The Promenpol statement on research and policy • Life after ProMenPol
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Lessons learned from the project • There is a real need for high quality mental health promotion • Rising rates of mental health problems • Increases in disability claims for mental health problems • Economic down turn • Proliferation of mental health promotion tools
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Lessons learned from the project • Policy makers • Activity at EU level – the Mental Health Pact • Lack of knowledge about good and effective practice • What are the most effective means of implementing policy at EU and national level? • Practitioners • Lack of opportunity to network and exchange experience • Lack of documentation of activities • Lack of a framework for documenting and assessing interventions
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Lessons learned from the project • Practitioners and policy makers see a real value in ProMenPOl activities • More than 600 newsletter recipients • More than 40000 hits per month on the website • User evaluations very positive
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Policy Practice Research Traditional approach
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Policy Practice Research Traditional approach – quality of relationship Strong Weak Weak Weak
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Policy Practice ProMenPol approach
Policy Practice Field trials • Database • Assessment support • Conferences • Discussion groups • Workshops PROMENPOLConference 2009
PROMENPOLConference 2009 The ProMenPol statement on research and policy • The ProMenPol principles of approach • Mental health promotion is concerned with positive mental wellbeing as well as with mental illness • Factors contributing to mental wellbeing resilience are to be found in settings • Practitioners can shed extra light on what works
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Traditional approaches to research • Largely informed by bio-medical tradition • Randomised controlled trials • Epidemiological surveys • Risk factor based approach • Failure to acknowledge factors promoting resilience • Failure to acknowledge complexity of settings and the interaction with the individual
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Problems with traditional approaches • Randomised control trials • RCTs assume an experimental paradigm • Assumes effective control can be achieved • Assumes knowledge of the key variables • Limitations on the nature of the interventions that can be tested • Ethical issues in real life settings are hard to handle
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Problems with traditional approaches • Large scale multi-variate approaches • For example, population surveys, quasi-experiments • Usually focus on risk factors • They have difficulty in assessing processes • Practical problems in relation to duration, timeliness and cost
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Appropriate methods and evidence for MHP • Needs to be drawn from the methods used within the settings, e.g. quality management • Good practice examples • Action research
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Alternative types of evidence • Baseline Pre-Post Studies - Making sure that the measures are applied before any change is implemented. • Triangulation: Collecting data about the same phenomenon from three independent sources • Action Research - using a cyclical approach with the involvement of practitioners as researchers • Replication - Replicating the intervention provide greater credibility to positive results. • Benchmarking - Using trend data from embedded impact indicators • Programme theory - creating logical models
PROMENPOLConference 2009 What practitioners can do • Don’t change too many things at the same time. • Be clear on what you want to do and what your intended outcome is • Clearly describe what the intervention is • Be very specific about the way you are going to measure your results • Use more than one measure (different types of data are useful), from different independent sources (triangulation)
PROMENPOLConference 2009 What practitioners can do • Decide what comparator you are going to use • Where possible replicate the intervention in different settings • Involve more than one intervener and more than one data collector • If data need to be analysed seek expert advice when you are designing the measures • It didn’t happen if it is not published. Find ways to disseminate your findings
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Life after ProMenPol • Continuing the project through other means • MHP Hands • T-MHP • Developing a network for mental health promotion • On-line journal
PROMENPOLConference 2009 Thank you all!