In Europe 20 million people experience depression and its associated personal distress, while the total cost is estimated at 105,666 million Euros each year.
The Anti Stigma Programme: European Network (ASPEN) aims at making an important contribution to the reduction of stigma and discrimination against people with depression in the 27 EU member states and to communicate this knowledge to all relevant stakeholders. To achieve this, ASPEN assesses the extent of stigma and discrimination against people with depression (both adolescent and adults) and gathers and disseminates information on best practice (at the policy and at the operational levels) to reduce stigma and discrimination against people with depression to relevant stakeholders in all 27 member states. Best practice is understood here as a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result. The scope of the project will focus on the impact of stigma and discrimination upon the everyday lives of people with depression, and identify proven strategies to reverse such forms of social exclusion. We have chosen depression because: (i) it is common, affecting up to 8% of the population each year; (ii) it is often untreated; (iii) it has a major impact on the economy. To read more about discrimination and stigma experienced by people with depression, click here.
The objectives of the project are: • Production of stigma and discrimination scales to assess stigma and discrimination with people with depression; • Creation of detailed analytical European profile of stigma and discrimination as experienced by young people and adults with depression, including both anticipated and expected discrimination and self-stigma; • Interviews and focus groups with at least 500 people with depression in 20 sites; • Collation of best-practice to reduce stigma and discrimination and distribution at the national and local levels in all 27 member states; • Recommendations on how to include people with depression in policy and law formation and how to tackle barriers that lead to exclusion; • Collection of best practices on employment strategies, including work entry and job retention for people with depression.
To read more about the research methods, click here. For a detailed description of seven research projects, click here.
The project is a 3 year project (2009-2011) linking 20 sites in Europe. For the list of countries and local contacts click here.
