About MARATONE

MARATONE is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network project that directly addresses the need for high-level training and career pathways in mental health to increase the inter-sectorial and trans-national employability of young scientists in the academic, public and private sectors to meet the enormous challenge of the 2009 EU Parliament Resolution on Mental Health. The Resolution set out recommendations for a comprehensive and integrated mental health strategy for Europe. MARATONE is designed to address the biggest challenge to implementing this ambitious strategy: the lack of training for career pathways for young scientists in multidisciplinary mental health research.

MARATONE is built on the innovative theoretical premise of “horizontal epidemiology”, the view that psychosocial difficulties associated with mental health disorders are not exclusively determined by the diagnosis of the particular disorder in a vertical, silo-like pattern but ‘horizontally’ in a manner that reflects commonalities in the lived experience of people with diverse mental health problems.

Grounded in this theoretical foundation, MARATONE’s multidisciplinary network of partners will collaboratively develop methodologies for measuring the individual and social impact of mental health disorders, so as to create strategies for the social and private sector responses to mental ill health in the form of health promotion and prevention programmes, and at the national level, strategies for human rights protections in policies and programming. The consortium will provide young researchers with scientific expertise in mental health, as well as basic technical and communication skills, including research development and management, international human rights commitments, and commercial exploitation and dissemination.

The scientific dimension of MARATONE is composed of four research topics, which reflect the priority areas set out in the 2009 EU Parliament Resolution on Mental Health:

TOPIC 1  MENTAL HEALTH EPIDEMIOLOGY ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN

TOPIC 2  DEPRESSION AND DELIBERATE SELF-HARM

TOPIC 3  MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN WORKPLACE SETTINGS

TOPIC 4  HUMAN RIGHTS AND COMBATING STIGMA AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION

 

Individual Research Projects

 

ESR 1 – Mental Health Epidemiology (Host institution: University of Southampton, School of Psychology)

ESR 2 – Interventions on psychosocial difficulties in brain disorders (Host institution: University of Southampton, School of Psychology)

ESR 3 – Interventions on psychosocial difficulties in affective disorders (Host institution: CIBERSAM)

ESR 4 – Mental health in neurological disorders: from burden to human rights (Host institution: Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico «Carlo Besta»)

ESR 5 – Developing Interventions for psychosocial difficulties across mental disorders (Host institution: Instytut Psychiatrii i Neurologii)

ESR 6 – Lifestyle and behavioral influences on cognitive ageing across cultures (Host institution: King’s College London)

ESR 7 – Psychosocial strain and its work related determinants at the work place (Host institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

ESR 8 – Cost-effectiveness of mental health and well-being promotion initiatives, including those in workplace-based settings (Host Institution: London School of Economics)

ESR 9 – Depression and deliberate self-harm in young people (Host institution: National Suicide Research Foundation)

ESR 10 – The foundations of a mental health information system for Europe (Host institution: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu)

ESR 11 – Development and evaluation of mental health and wellbeing promotion initiatives in workplace-based settings (Host Institution: SIEMENS)

ESR 12 – Development of guidelines for the implementation of human rights in mental health (Host Institution: Swiss Paraplegic Research)

ESR 13 – Prevention and epidemiology of depression and suicidal acts in Europe (Host institution: University of Leipzig)

ESR 14 – Schizophrenia across the life span (Host institution: University of Oulu)