On October 28 and 29, the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP) hosted the third general meeting of the MENTBEST consortium, an european project aimed at designing and implementing multi-component community interventions to promote positive mental health and prevent common mental disorders.
This meeting brought together, both in person and online, members from the project’s 14 partner institutions across nine European countries—Portugal, Germany, Spain, Albania, Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Estonia, and Belgium. The gathering facilitated a more dynamic and participatory exchange on project progress and future actions. During the meeting, the development of materials for one intervention—COMBINA—created by ISPUP researchers, was finalized. Discussions also focused on the implementation and evaluation process of this intervention in selected regions (Albania, Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Estonia). Researchers also provided an update on the development of a medical device designed to promote well-being and reduce depressive symptoms, which will be implemented in Spain, Denmark, and Germany.
Throughout the project—which began in April 2023 and is set to conclude in March 2028—the MENTBEST team will (1) define and characterize new mental health challenges related to societal changes; (2) identify evidence-based interventions and tools that help build resilience within populations; (3) develop and validate a digital mobile application for passive and active individual data collection, featuring self-diagnosis and self-monitoring functions, as well as providing preventive and mental health management strategies (MENTINA); (4) combine positive mental health promotion interventions and the MENTINA digital app with the four-level prevention model of EAAD, adapted and disseminated within communities (COMBINA); and (5) implement and validate COMBINA in five different countries, with a particular focus on its effectiveness among vulnerable groups: youth, the elderly, unemployed individuals, migrants, and those affected by common mental disorders.
The COMBINA program will be disseminated through a coordinated outreach strategy, led by MENTBEST and through the EAAD network, targeting communities and government entities in different countries.
The ISPUP team from the Laboratory Mental Health Literacy, Wellbeing, Depression and Suicide Prevention, led by Ricardo Gusmão, is responsible for designing and producing all materials, including the COMBINA implementation manual.
