Just over 25 years have passed since the major sociopolitical changes in central and eastern Europe; our aim was to map and analyse the development of mental health-care practice for people with severe mental illnesses in this region since then. A scoping review was complemented by an expert survey in 24 countries. Mental health-care practice in the region differs greatly across as well as within individual countries. National policies often exist but reforms remain mostly in the realm of aspiration. Services are predominantly based in psychiatric hospitals. Decision making on resource allocation is not transparent, and full economic evaluations of complex interventions and rigorous epidemiological studies are lacking. Stigma seems to be higher than in other European countries, but consideration of human rights and user involvement are increasing. The region has seen respectable development, which happened because of grassroots initiatives supported by international organisations, rather than by systematic implementation of government policies.
In: Maria Haro , J , Luis Ayuso-Mateos , J , Bitter , I , Demotes-Mainard , J , Leboyer , M , Lewis , S W , Linszen , D , Maj , M , Mcdaid , D , Meyer-Lindenberg , A , Robbins , T W , Schumann , G , Thornicroft , G , Van der Feltz-Cornelis , C , Van Os , J , Wahlbeck , K , Wittchen , H-U , Wykes , T , Arango , C , Bickenbach , J , Brunn , M , Cammarata , P , Chevreul , K , Evans-Lacko , S , Finocchiaro , C , Fiorillo , A , Forsman , A K , Hazo , J-B , Knappe , S , Kuepper , R , Luciano , M , Miret , M , Obradors-Tarrago , C , Pagano , G , Papp , S & Walker-Tilley , T 2014 , ' ROAMER : roadmap for mental health research in Europe ' International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research , vol 23 , no. S1 , N/A , pp. 1-14 . DOI:10.1002/mpr.1406
Despite the high impact of mental disorders in society, European mental health research is at a critical situation with a relatively low level of funding, and few advances been achieved during the last decade. The development of coordinated research policies and integrated research networks in mental health is lagging behind other disciplines in Europe, resulting in lower degree of cooperation and scientific impact. To reduce more efficiently the burden of mental disorders in Europe, a concerted new research agenda is necessary. The ROAMER (Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe) project, funded under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, aims to develop a comprehensive and integrated mental health research agenda within the perspective of the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 programme, with a translational goal, covering basic, clinical and public health research. ROAMER covers six major domains: infrastructures and capacity building, biomedicine, psychological research and treatments, social and economic issues, public health and well-being. Within each of them, state-of-the-art and strength, weakness and gap analyses were conducted before building consensus on future research priorities. The process is inclusive and participatory, incorporating a wide diversity of European expert researchers as well as the views of service users, carers, professionals and policy and funding institutions.