Author:

Keywords:

Psychiatry, 1103 Clinical Sciences

Abstract:

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen established a task force on mental health assessment formed by psychiatry experts whom, together with the WHO collaborating centers, assist a European network on mental health of 47 ministerial-nominated national counterparts for mental health. This article discusses assessments that have been made in seven east European and south east European states during the three years of existence of the task force. Most of the evaluation instruments currently used require costly and lengthy field studies, which are rarely possible in the context of this kind of assessment. A great effort should be made in the future to agree on simple and reliable procedures for assessing these parameters and monitoring evolution. On the whole, the described assessments increased interest and sensitivity for mental health issues thus putting mental health issues in the focus of policy in most of the countries concerned.