Mental health services research across European countries

Approximately 50% of people with mental disorders in Europe are not reached by health systems. Even fewer receive evidence-based mental health treatment. In addition to system-level factors, individual factors (e.g., perceived symptom severity, minority status, illness beliefs, treatment expectations, etc.) have been identified as drivers of mental health care seeking and subsequent access. However, these factors have solely been studied within individual national health care systems and therefore cannot be disentangled from system-level factors. The Horizon 2025 call provides a unique opportunity to explore the individual-level barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health care from the perspective of the people affected, across national health systems. Our project will focus primarily on people who are affected by mental disorders but not yet reached, and will explore their path(s) to mental health care, as well as opportunities to promote health equity. We are looking for research partners who are interested in investigating mental health care processes in order to identify effective, less effective or even harmful care structures. We are particularly interested in collaborating with researchers in public mental health, sociology, health economics and computer science. Our research lab has expertise in early detection of mental disorders (i.e. mental health screening), simulation studies and small-scale intervention development. If you think that our expertise could be useful in advising on your project, please contact us.