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German Center of Prevention Research in Mental Health

Mission and Aims

Innovative Prevention Programs in Order to Reduce the Incidence of Mental Disorders

The GCPM aims to develop, evaluate and disseminate innovative prevention programs in order to reduce the incidence of mental disorders. The GCPM will contribute to the overall reduction of the societal burden with mental disorders and their psychosocial consequences

In this regard, crucial research questions are still unresolved:

  • Who benefits from what intervention with respect to which mental disorder?
  • Which mental disorders may be effectively prevented by primary interventions?
  • Which mechanisms underly preventive effects?
  • Can we define neuro-bio-psycho-social risk and resilience signatures for specific populations?
  • How can we maximize outreach and dissemination?

Innovative Research and Service Structure

The GCPM generates an  addressing the following tasks:

  • Generate a national and international network of scientits covering various disciplines
  • Generate a national and international network of academic research institutions with the school, educational and consulting system, child and youth welfare, social services, politics, health insurance companies and institutions providing prevention to the public.
  • Provision and dissemination of evidence-based prevention programs 
  • Improving early diagnosis of mental disorders to prevent chronification and targeted transfer of children, adolescents and young adults with incident mental disorders to the indicated treatment setting.
  • Scientific Evaluation of existing prevention programs of cooperating institutions.
  • Service and support platform for the implementation randomized-controlled intervention studies
  • Easily accessible consulting and risk assessment for families and institutions.

The GCPM Acts Along a Translational Pipeline

In order to tackle these research questions, the GCPM acts along a translational pipeline (see figure):

  • Identification of intervention target mechanisms
  • Development of prevention programs and first pilot studies
  • Optimization of programs in explorative studies,
  • Evaluation of effectiveness of programs in confirmatory studies  
  • Dissemination and monitoring of population effects