Conveners:
Professor Ming-Been Lee, National Taiwan University
Abstract:
Globally, more than 300 million people suffer from depression_(WHO, 2017). Depressive symptoms and disorders are highly associated with suicidal behaviors and are attributed to multiple factors including biological, environmental, social, and psychological aspects. Higher degrees of depressive symptoms were found to be related to low socioeconomic status, low income, poor social support, and perceived social status. These factors were all contributable to the mental states of entrapment and thwarted belongingness, resulting in negative brain consequences. Given the above background, the project will target at reviewing evidence-based depression care networks and/or policy across the countries worldwide, and proposing the Taiwan national integrative and collaborative care network model. The project will be composed of five mental health professional teams to inform the national depression care framework. The teams will be designated the following five topics for further investigation, i.e., prevention of depression, clinical diagnosis, treatment guidance, community care, and policy suggestions. The aims of the project are mainly two-fold: (1) developing a systematic model integrating person-centered care process from symptom awareness, early detection and diagnosis, treatment connection, and psychiatric service referrals; (2) integrating evidence-based research to propose a framework of stepped care for depressive disorders integrating different clinical and community contexts across countryside and the cities in Taiwan.
