The evaluation of NSPSs - reflections based on the experience of 3 years of European Joint Action ImpleMENTAL
Background: As part of the European Joint Action ImpleMENTAL, 15 European countries have developed or updated their National Suicide Prevention Strategies (NSPSs) based on the Austrian SUPRA model. They structured suicide prevention activities based on strategic and operational goals and actions to achieve these goals. Indicators and measurands were defined for all actions. Naturally, the question of measuring the impact of NSPSs was a much-discussed topic during the three-year project period, as the proven effectiveness of entire strategies would be an important argument to convince decision-makers to invest in suicide prevention.
Not only in suicide prevention, but in the entire field of public health, maximum impact at the population level is the highest, but also the most difficult goal of programmes and strategies to achieve. Based on the experiences during the Joint Action ImpleMENTAL this presentation will discuss the problem of measuring the impact of policies and interventions on public health: E.g. the positive effect of the construction of water pipes bringing fresh water from the mountains to the city of Vienna had very easily recognisable effect on life expectancy in Vienna in the 19th century. In the case of modern public health measures and public mental health in particular, it is somewhat more difficult to prove effects. On the one hand, mental health is influenced by a huge bundle of determinants, so that multi-layered and multi-level strategies and interventions are needed, which require a lot of money and strong political commitment and, of course, a wider range of indicators to measure the impact. On the other hand, probably the most effective measures (e.g. short-time work programmes in times of economic crisis) are far outside the responsibility of traditional health policy. At the same time, all the determinants mentioned above can be influenced by various antagonists such as economic downturns, pandemics, wars, ... in short: the multiple crises we are currently facing. Possible solutions for measuring success of NSPSs and the role of the suicide rate as an indicator for the effective-ness of the NSPS will be discussed.
In the second part of the presentation, the problem of low coverage of policies and actions as another cause of poor evaluation results in terms of public health impact will be discussed and possible solutions will be presented.

learning objective: Critical reflection on the indicators for impact measurement. Reflection on the possibilities for increasing impact.