engleski

Mental health as public good – Psychosocial interventions in mental health

Booklet summary Despite significant research advances regarding prevention, promotion and treatment of mental disorders as well as psychosocial determinants of mental health, translation into real-world impact has been slow at all levels of prevention. One of the key reasons is the way of thinking about mental disorders, the possibilities of their treatment and prevention, burdened with the stigma that is present not only in society but also in treatment services. Although numerous professional guidelines for the treatment of various mental disorders recommend a biopsychosocial approach, the application of combination of biological (most commonly medications), psychosocial and psychotherapeutic interventions based on individualized treatment plan as well as encouraging recovery and empowerment, the biological approach with its focus on eliminating symptoms is prevailing over psychosocial interventions which contradicts the evidence of their effectiveness. The prevailing biological approach, although effective and necessary in clinical practice to treatment of mental disorders, fails to accurately reflect the diversity and complexity of mental health needs of individuals or population in general, especially psychosocial needs. Due to the fact that mental health is significantly affected by psychosocial factors, neglecting their influence and not applying psychosocial methods that contribute to their elimination and recovery from mental disorder can lead to unnecessary chronicity of the disorder and reduce the possibility of recovery. This booklet wants to emphasize that there is a large number of evidence-based psychosocial interventions at all levels of prevention that need to be applied more in practice. Training in their application is needed to enable successful treatment of mental disorders, as well as their prevention. The importance of the application of psychosocial interventions is in improving functioning and promoting resilience, as well as symptoms which all reduce the risk for development and relapse of mental disorder, therefore they should be available at all levels of prevention. Depending on individual needs, in clinical practice psychosocial interventions can be used in different therapeutic settings as a single intervention, but more often in combination with different psychosocial interventions as well in combination with psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. In order to achieve the best results, these methods should be applied as early as possible. Effective approaches to prevent mental disorders should be seen as one whole of interconnected parts. Improvements in any part of the intervention can have a beneficial effect on other parts. We want to stress that an array of evidence- based psychosocial interventions is available on all levels of prevention. On the level of treatment of persons with mental disorders from this array of evidence-based psychosocial interventions therapist/treatment team and patients can choose, guided by the present problems and aims of the therapy, but increased effort is needed in terms of dissemination and implementation of these therapies in clinical practice as well as the prevention strategies at the population level. We also want to stress that promoting resilience is a key strategy for decreasing the risk for mental disorders, and should therefore be available at all level of prevention.

health ; public ; mental ; interventions ; psychosocial ; evidence-based

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