National Mental Health Surveillance at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)

Project lead: Julia Thom (FG 26); Elvira Mauz (FG 26); Heike Hölling (FG 26)

The establishment of a national mental health surveillance at the Robert Koch Institute aims to provide a sustainable database of public mental health. A set of core indicators for mental health will be defined, considering primary data from surveys conducted by the RKI health monitoring as well as relevant administrative data from the healthcare system. Thereby, with a continuous collection of data, a frequent evaluation of mental health in Germany is possible and can facilitate responses of the public health system.

The selection of indicators will be conducted in a moderated consensual process involving stakeholders from prevention, healthcare, health policy, science and patient organisations. In order to close identified research gaps in the long term, an extended mental health survey inventory will be developed during the project, suitable for the future public health monitoring of the RKI.
The mental health surveillance system will be implemented according to the following milestones:

1. Consensus on core indicators of public mental health and development a framework for action
2. Evaluation of data availability (primary data and administrative data) and applicability of administrative data
3. Identification of data gaps and conception of an extended mental health survey inventory to be integrated in future health surveys at the RKI
4. Integration of the mental health surveillance system into the surveillance of noncommunicable diseases as a core mission of the Robert Koch Institute

Project duration: 03/2019 – 12/2021
Project type: research project
Funding: Federal Ministry of Health

Contact: Mental Health Surveillance
Department 2: Epidemiology and Health Monitoring
Unit 26: Mental Health
Robert Koch Institute
General-Pape-Str. 62 - 66
12101 Berlin, Germany
Email: [email protected]