Avonis

The Hamburg network for mental health („Hamburger Netz psychische Gesundheit“) is a health project supported by the German federal ministry of education and research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung,BMBF). It is aimed to promote mental health, to help recognizing mental diseases early and to offer sustainable treatment. In order to achieve this, five fields of action were conceived, and also additional targets and measures were defined. These are put into practice by one or more subprojects. First field of action is enhancing awareness and promoting education. The mental health of the population in Hamburg shall be improved by a better understanding and awareness of mental illnesses. The implementation of measures will be accompanied by a four-year media campaign and an internet portal for mentally ill people as well as for their relatives and for experts.

In this case, Avonis has adapted the entire offline measures like poster advertising or cinema spots and has conceived an online portal to integrate the campaign communication as a whole. With the help of the content management system TYPO3 we were able to offer a digital tool to the university medical center. In a very innovative way TYPO3 can provide material for information and for decision-making, but it also offers low-entry level software for selfhelp and for creating symptom checklists. Above this Avonis has created several possibilities for networking and interaction of affected persons to improve their social and emotional support. Usage of a modern search engine allows fast access to local treatment possibilities as well as to high quality information (e.g. official rules of treatment, screening equipment and documentation material).

* Adaptation of offline measures (poster advertisement, cinema spots etc.) for the wholesome image campaign of Psychenet.

Avonis in the first step developed a basic version of the internet portal. It provides information about common psychic diseases and about their treatment and offers profound information about the health network “Hamburger Netz psychische Gesundheit”. In a second step, further content and applications are being developed under participation of patients and experts. The content is being published in the’tools’ area. By a local online-marketing campaign the internet portal shall be introduced in the Hamburg region, and futhermore its acceptance shall be tested this way. The media campaign transfers its target group-orientated information about psychic diseases by films, brochures and posters in an emotional manner. All material refers to the website psychenet.de and to a hotline / Skype service by which the Hamburg populace can get information and advice on psychic illnesses and their treatment.