Depression scorecard

HPP developed a framework to support the assessment of national-level performance in key aspects of policy and care for people living with depression, and applied it to countries across Europe.

Context

Depression has a profound effect on people’s lives and is linked to a number of negative outcomes, including reduced earnings, chronic illness and a higher chance of death. The associated stigma may prevent people from seeking the care they need.

The burden of depression is felt acutely across Europe, with countries spending billions on mental health services. Many countries are focusing on deinstitutionalising care, with the aim of bringing services into the community, and some have implemented national mental health plans. Despite these efforts, numerous barriers to access to and provision of high-quality care remain. These include stigma towards mental illness, fragmented care and regional inequalities in access to mental health services.

To improve the management of depression, policy and practice should focus on four key areas:

integrating mental health into wider health and social care services to enhance continuity of care
collecting and analysing data on depression
empowering people with depression to be actively involved in decisions about their own care
harnessing digital tools to improve access to care.

Additional resources

Local-language reports

Depression scorecard: Belgium (Dutch) Depression scorecard: Belgium (French) Depression scorecard: Finland (Finnish) Depression scorecard: France (French) Depression scorecard: Germany (German) Depression scorecard: Greece (Greek) Depression scorecard: Italy (Italian) Depression scorecard: Portugal (Portuguese) Depression scorecard: Romania (Romanian)

What we’ve achieved

As a follow-on to our previous work on finding a sustainable approach to depression, we have developed a series of scorecards designed to support national-level assessment of policy and delivery of care for people with depression. The scorecards are based on a framework that we developed following an international literature review and consultation with an expert advisory group.

We have initially applied the framework to four countries – Belgium, France, Italy and Romania – in consultation with national-level experts in each country. The findings have been summarised in individual country reports, produced in English and translated into the local language(s) for each country.

In the next phase of work, we developed reports for Finland, Germany, Greece and Portugal, which were also translated into the local language. All scorecards are made available for independent researchers in their own countries.

To accompany the launch of each country’s scorecard report, we developed videos in which the national-level experts discuss the priorities in their country.

HPP shared the scorecard methodology with a research consultancy in Slovakia, which has used it to develop scorecards for ten countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This project won an award for original/commissioned research for PR in the 2023 IN2 SABRE Awards.

Key partners and stakeholders

This project was developed with the support of the following partners and stakeholders: