Ulrich Hegerl and the EAAD members

A variety of factors such as undertreatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders, access to lethal means, media coverage of suicidal acts, stigmatisation of patients with mental disorders and alcohol consumption contribute to the high numbers of completed and attempted suicides in Europe. The 4-level-intervention concept developed within the model project’Nuremberg Alliance against Depression’ provided evidence for the efficiency of an intervention approach targeting simultaneously several of the above mentioned factors (1). Up to now, similar 4- level interventions have been implemented in more than 100 regions in Europe (2). This was done via large EU-funded projects, namely the’European Alliance against Depression’ (EAAD; www.eaad.net) and OSPI-Europe (www.OSPI-europe.com; 7thFramework Programme). From these projects data on suicidal behaviour during interventions in comparison to baseline and control regions (3) and on process evaluation will be presented. Via the EAAD, the intervention concept, the intervention materials and the broad experiences with the implementation of 4-level interventions in different cultures are offered to interested regions in and outside of Europe.