Warsaw Against Depression. More Warsaw districts declare fight against depression.

Authorities in the capital have signed a declaration in support of WHO and European Commission best practices in countering depression. The initiative is part of research in action in the EAAD-Best.eu grant from the Third EU Health Program, which in Poland is headed by Dr. Piotr Toczyski, APS Rector's Plenipotentiary for Strategic and Development Communication.

On October 10 this year, as part of World Mental Health Day, mayors of Warsaw's districts signed a declaration to support anti-depression activities. The event took place during the "Warsaw Against Depression" conference, organized at the Koneser Praga Center in Warsaw by the European Commission Representation in Poland, the Alliance Against Depression and the World Health Organization Office in Poland (WHO).

Depression is a disease that more and more people around the world are struggling with. In Europe alone, some 40 million people suffer from depression every year. In the European Union, about 48,000 people a year die by suicide, more than half of whom suffered from depression. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 1.5 million people in Poland struggle with depression. The disease can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, education or economic status. Unfortunately, it is also increasingly affecting children and adolescents. According to the National Health Service, in 2021 as many as 25,300 children were treated for depressive and mood disorders. And these are just the diagnosed cases. One of the ways to counteract and fight depression is to create so-called "anti-depression alliances" - sustainable, "living" networks of people, institutions and organizations operating locally, which through synergy can effectively support people experiencing depression and prevent suicidal behavior.

The need to create grassroots support networks and broader education about depression, including in schools, was discussed by participants of the "Warsaw Against Depression" conference, held on October 10th in Warsaw. Among the invited speakers and panelists were representatives of the European Commission, the World Health Organization, the European Alliance Against Depression, the Warsaw City Hall, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Polish Society of Community Psychiatry, the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology and Teen Asylum. Guests of honor at the conference were mayors and mayoresses of Warsaw's districts, who volunteered to support anti-depression efforts in their districts.

At the beginning of the conference, Bartlomiej Balcerzyk, Head of the Social Communication Department of the European Commission Representation in Poland, stressed that more than 6% of the European Union's population suffers from depression, and every fifth Pole shows symptoms of it. That is why, in his opinion, it is so important to spread knowledge about depression, its treatment and prevention.

- This is what local anti-depression alliances do - they create human networks for help and support. Local alliances are part of EAAD-Best - a European program of good practices related to the treatment and prevention of depression.Warsaw neighborhoods and local alliances can become an example for Europe on how to fight depression by focusing on the person and the surrounding community. - says Bartlomiej Balcerzyk

According to Dr. Piotr Toczyski of the Secretariat of the Warsaw Alliance Against Depression, one of thekey actions is to include PCPs in local alliances. - The European Commission has a catalog of best practices. In this catalog, it has included the EAAD method, in which we interact at 4 levels in a 100,000-strong population with the local community, including GPs. It's important that we remind ourselves of the guidelines for primary care physicians. For 3 years, the Supreme Chamber of Physicians and the Polish Psychiatric Association have been pushing for these guidelines to reach PCPs, so that doctors get training in recognizing depression and its treatment. - Dr. Piotr Toczyski emphasizes.

Olga Pilarska-Siennicka, Director of the Office of Health Policy at the Warsaw City Hall, presented activities that the City of Warsaw is implementing in the area of adult, child and adolescent psychiatry. Among other things, the city operates community psychological and psychotherapeutic care centers for children and adolescents, mental health clinics operating in the city's outpatient clinics and in 2 pilot mental health centers for adults (Wolski Hospital and Bielański Hospital), which aim to convert psychiatric treatment from isolation to community-based treatment, i.e. available close to home.

Olga Pilarska-Siennicka also read a letter from Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. Addressing the conference participants in the letter, the President stressed that: "the period of the pandemic and the uncertainty associated with it, the war going on behind the country's borders have made psychological support and talking openly about mental health problems should be one of the priorities." The Warsaw mayor also noted that thanks to initiatives such as today's conference, Poles' knowledge and awareness of depression is growing, and the disease is increasingly less often treated as a taboo subject, both in the media and in local communities.

The issue of the war in Ukraine and the possible mental health effects it could have on people reaching Poland was also brought to the attention of Dr. Paloma Cuchi of the World Health Organization Office in Poland.

- According to WHO estimates, about 20% of people who find themselves in a situation of war conflict will develop mental disorders. These people will need psychological help for mental illness.

Another problem - the experience of autism and depression - was pointed out by Dr. Maciej Oksztulski, a research fellow at the Department of Public and European International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok, and a data analyst at EUROPE DIRECT Podlaskie. With his presentation, recorded using a speech synthesizer, Dr. Oksztulski pointed out that depression often also affects people with disabilities, who are particularly in need of psychological support.

Another highlight of the conference was a panel discussion "Support for individuals and communities in Counteracting Depression." Taking part in the discussion, Dr. Marek Balicki of the Polish Psychiatric Association pointed out that the local community is the place where various mental health activities can be organized, including doctors, especially primary care doctors, which is the key, the entrance to the health care system.

- On average, there are 2,500 patients per family doctor. We can make these 50 family doctors in a community with a population of up to 100,000 will educate, compensate for deficits related to knowledge and experience in mental health problems, including the problem of depression. - says Dr. Balicki

Especially since, as Dr. Joanna Krzy?anowska-Zbucka of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology stressed, the availability of psychiatric help is very poor in Poland.

- There are places where the waiting time for an appointment is several months. It's not even that there is a shortage of psychiatrists. But they don't work in the public health care system. The private sector is filled with doctors, it's easier to get help there. - says Dr. Krzyzanowska-Zbucka. Dr. Krzyzanowska-Zbucka also drew attention to the problem of stigma, the stigmatization of people with mental disorders, which can lead to self-stigmatization.??

- Self-stigmatization is a very negative phenomenon that delays the time to come forward for help. The longer we go with symptoms, the more difficult it is to treat the disease. - Dr. Krzyzanowska-Zbucka adds

This was experienced by Szymon Majewski, a radio and television journalist, another participant in the panel discussion. - I thought to myself, after all, I am this indomitable knight, giving a smile to the whole world. Everyone looks at me and thinks - what a cheerful gentleman he is. Children used to call me "Mr. Cool." Why does something suddenly happen to him? The courage to speak about his own illness was given to him by Justyna Kowalczyk: She made a breakthrough as a famous person. In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, she said that at the time she was winning gold medals and winning all her races, she was struggling with depression. It opened me up. Until then, it seemed to me that talking about depression was harping on others, exhibitionism. I had such a block inside me. - says Szymon Majewski

Angelika Friedrich of Teen Asylum, a peer-run initiative, stressed that with the support of loved ones, the community, we are better able to cope with crises, and that admitting to others that one suffers from depression gives inner peace and opens up various possibilities for help.??

Guests of honor at the conference were mayors and mayors of Warsaw's districts, who, within the scope of their competencies, pledged to make special efforts to use the recognized good practices of the European Commission and the World Health Organization in disseminating in Warsaw's local communities of knowledge about recognizing and treating depression. The Warsaw Against Depression Declaration was signed by representatives of such districts present at the conference as Bemowo, Bia?o??ka, Bielany, Mokotów, Praga-Po?udnie, Rembertów, ?ródmie?cie, Targówek, Ursynów, Wawer, Weso?a, Wilanów, W?ochy, Wola, ?oliborz. The districts have also declared their willingness to include their activities in the network of alliances against depression.

- We are very pleased that the initiative to create local networks of alliances against depression, which we initiated in Poland together with the authorities of the City Center, has spread to almost all other districts of the city of Warsaw. We also have signals from other localities in Poland that are interested in establishing alliances in their areas. In this way, we hope that local alliances against depression will contribute to breaking taboos related to mental health and strengthening structures that help people in the process of recovery throughout Poland." - says Marta Smagowicz of the Warsaw Alliance Against Depression.