EAAD Wins the First European Health Forum Award

The “European Alliance against Depression” is the winner of the “European Health Forum Award” presented this year for the first time.

With the prize the European Health Forum Gastein honours outstanding initiatives in the area of healthcare that have had verifiable scientific successes. 25 applications were submitted for the European Health Forum Award, with all EU countries involved in one or more projects. Six finalists were initially selected in the scope of a two-stage process.

In addition to the winning project these were:

  • “Medicine Safety Belt”: help for proper use of medications by patients (Austria, Germany).
  • FINDRISC: screening system for early recognition of the risk for Type 2 Diabetes (16 EU member states).
  • The Maas-Rhein Cross-Border Healthcare Programme: a trilateral network for improved cross-border use of healthcare facilities in border regions (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands).
  • Quality Assurance in Breast Cancer Screening: network of pilot projects to develop best-practice recommendations and guidelines (19 European countries) for the prevention and early recognition of breast cancer.
  • Smokefree Class Competition: European prevention programme for adolescents on the basis of social learning and group dynamic processes (19 European states).

With its persuasive initiative the European Alliance against Depression is focused on the alarmingly high number of suicides.

European Alliance Against Depression:

Around twelve percent of Europeans suffer from major depression at least once in their life; a large proportion of the 58,000 annual suicides in the EU are a result of depression. Using a four-tier approach (intervening with primary care physicians; initiating a media campaign; special training for key groups such as teachers, clergy, police, pharmacists etc.; initiating self-help groups and emergency cards for those who have attempted suicide) resulted in a significant reduction in suicidal acts in a pilot region.

Countries: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

“The European Alliance against Depression is a truly worthy prizewinner,” says EHFG President Günther Leiner about the high-quality project submitted for the EHFA.

“I’m convinced that with this newly established prize an important signal has been sent that self-initiative and the personal commitment of individuals continue to be of overwhelming importance in an age when the healthcare industry as a whole is dominated by large apparatuses. We owe our thanks to the men and women who initiate such exemplary projects and they deserve to have their work honoured. The EHFA is also certainly a motivation for the many others who do valuable work for people in Europe in countless important healthcare projects"

For more information on EAAD visit www.eaad.net or contact Lisa Wittenburg, the Project Manager.

 

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