About the SUPPORT Project

SUPPORT is a three year collaborative project co-funded by the European Commission under Priority Action Area Three (Health Determinants) of the Community Action Plan on Public Health (2003-8).

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The SUPPORT Project is led by the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health with STAKES and NHS Health Scotland.  The Project is supported and co-financed by the Scottish Government Directorate General for Health and Wellbeing.

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Sitting alongside other projects in the EU Public Health programme, this project is intended to provide administrative, technical and scientific support to further the mental health priorities of the European Commission. 

The primary objectives of the Project are:

• To support the development, delivery and implementation of the EU Strategy on Mental Health
• To raise the profile and visibility of the European Commission Agenda on Mental health, across policy arenas

Year One Milestones

The first year of the project took three directions:

1. The project organised an expert seminar to explore workplace wellbeing, an issue that had policy implications both within and outwith the Public Health policy area.
2. The project provided facilitation and rapporteur roles in the formal consultation process around the Green Paper.
3. The project provided intensive research support for Commission Services during the development of the Pact, including work on the Impact Assessment process.

Year Two Milestones

The second year of the project SUPPORT has continued working towards the project deliverables:

1. The project organised an expert seminar on Mental Health in Schools with DG-SANCO and DG-EAC. This event developed a set of key messages for the topic, and discussed potential Community level actions in the field.
2. The project organised a summit of around 20 mental health projects from a range of policy areas including the public health programme and the fifth and sixth research frameworks.
3. Project staff attended relevant meetings of complementary mental health projects and stakeholder organisations working on the key topic areas.
4. The project joined a consortium led by GENCAT, providing contracted work in response to a tender from DG-SANCO to provide additional capacity forpreparing the High Level Conference on Mental Health in June 2008 in Brussels.
5. The project supported expert groups developing consensus papers for the High Level Conference, through its involvement with the consortium.
6. The project continued to develop the interactive website to best suit the needs of the proposed Mental Health Pact.
7. The project worked closely with Commission Services to develop a Background Paper for the High Level Conference, giving key facts about mental health in the EU and outlining examples of actions that could be taken in the field.

Year Three Plans

In the final year the SUPPORT project continues to work to its objectives. It will:

• Deliver an online database of mental health projects funded by the EU since 2000. 
• Boost the numbers of registered website members receiving e-bulletins of key developments in the field
• Continue to connect and promote mental health project outcomes, including the networking of project leads.
• Support groups taking forward actions from the High Level Conference.
• Produce accessible factsheets giving key information to a range of stakeholders.
• Hold another seminar on an area of key importance to the Mental Health Pact.
• Take part in work to prioritise mental health in health indicators development at a Community Level.