Description
In Bulgaria suicides represent one of the social problems with a growing importance. The information about prevalence of psychiatric disorders is an essential basis for assessment and planning and implementing the national policy for provision of adequate mental health services. Objectives of the project: To improve public health and reduce health disparities; Evidence based mental health policy and plan of action. Outcomes: Provision of reliable and sustainable information to mental health and other professionals in the field; Increased competency of the GPs to recognize, treat and refer persons with depression and suicidal intentions; Increased training capacity of 56 Regional Health Inspectorate representatives (RHI) about mental health problems related with suicidal behavior and suicidal prevention among youngsters; Obtained scientific evidences about prevalence, morbidity and mortality of mental disorders and the utilization of mental health services; Raised public awareness about mental health problems. Target groups: GPs, 28 Regional Health Inspectorates, educationalists, school psychologists.
Summary of project results
The results achieved by the project are significant and some unique. Project activities are logically linked to each other - training is complemented by the collection of reliable information that serves to design a sustainable policy in the field of public mental health. The Suicide Portal is one of the few attempts in the Balkan countries to create a sustainable information line for this type of behavior and the reasons for it. One of the major advances in the results of the project is that they are part of the activities under the National Suicide Prevention Program that is in force until 2018. The results of the project thus become even more resilient as they become part of the national policy in this area. For the first time one third of GPs in the country were engaged in training on subjects for which there is very little knowledge in their practice. Through the established distance learning platform, GPs can build on the learning within the project and include new users. The prepared training materials can be included in the curriculum of general medicine departments as they are developed by leading psychiatrists and are oriented to the best of practice. It is expected that the training of psychologists and RHI school education experts on the nature of aggression and self-aggression will reduce the incidence of aggression and suicide among adolescents. This may be a prerequisite for including the topic in the school curriculum as a health education class. Developed materials for four classes covering the most fragile age of puberty can become the basis for developing a comprehensive program to prevent aggression in schools as well as early diagnosis of school-age psychological deviations.
Summary of bilateral results
In 2015 a Partnership Agreement between National Centre for Public Health and Analyses and the Norwegian Institute for Public Health was signed. The agreement included consultant from Norwegian Institute to review the training process – selection of trainees, educational materials and the overall impact of the training. Memorandum with Recommendation was prepared by the Norwegian consulting team. The international cooperation with the consultant (Prof. Arnstein Mykletun) will be continued after the completion of the activities in 2017. The hypothesis is to compare the suicidal rates in the selected regions where the training took place with two control regions without training in order to estimate the impact of the training on early detection of depression and anxiety by General practitioners measured through the rate of suicidal attempts for a particular period.