ERSI is a non-governmental R&D organization established in 1993 (www.suicidology.ee) in collaboration with Karolinska Institute, Sweden. ERSI is the strategic partner of the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and the member of the Estonian Mental Health and Well-being Coalition (VATEK; www.vatek.ee). ERSI has specific expertise in the field of mental health, wellbeing, and suicidal behaviours. ERSI contributes to capacity building and policy making by integrating outcomes of evidence-based research into the area of public mental health practice. ERSI has collaborative contacts with leading universities in Estonia. The main focus of R&D activities of ERSI has been on epidemiology, mental health promotion, prevention of mental disorders (particularly depression, anxiety, suicidality) and risk behaviours (alcohol abuse, bullying etc), evaluation of interventions, dissemination and integration of research into policies and practice, raising awareness, collecting and administering individual level data, and also building IT solutions and managing information exchange for project consortiums. ERSI has multidisciplinary team with qualifications in diverse areas – psychiatry, public health, social work, sociology, demography, psychology, economics and law.
ERSI has been involved in international EC funded projects mainly as work-package leader (MONSUE, FP7 OSPI-Europe, SUPREME, PREDI-NU, FP7 SEYLE, FP7 WE-STAY, ACTION-FOR-HEALTH, EAAD-Best), in mental health networks and policy development projects (IMHPA, EMIP, JA MH-WB, EAAD-MENTBEST), in the projects targeting mental health over the life-span (FP6 ProMenPol, T-MHP, MHPHands), WHO collaborative projects (SUPRE-MISS, HBSC), and AppsTerv developing web-based interventions, including smartphone apps for suicide prevention and mental health promotion.