Supported by international initiatives, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) has undertaken a major reform of mental health care within less than 10 years. There are now decentralized community based services, and the country has become a leader in mental health reform in the WBCs region.

 However, the further development of services in the region needed to be underpinned by high quality mental health services research. Department of Psychiatry has initiated such research and participated in one FP6 project (CONN ECT) thereby gaining experience in mental health, services research.

The proposed project has undertaken the following measures to achieve better capacity in research of mental health services:

-         Development of programmes for existing and new staff, PhD programmes, exchange collaboration with research units abroad will enhance the critical mass and expertise of mental health service research at the Department of Psychiatry. This will encompass quantitative and qualitative research methods and address particularly the challenges to health and social care systems in a socially disrupted society and the post conflict reconciliation;

- Within both B&H and wider WBCs  collaborative networks of services to conduct research were established;

- The research  provided  evidence-based guidelines for health and social care that are of national, regional and international importance;

- Finally, grant applications, including for FP7, were worked out to generate funding for a the future of the centre of excellence that will be established through this project.

More information available on: http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.document&PJ_LANG=EN&PJ_RCN=9637906