5) Description of health product/service offering: The underdeveloped countries health issue through an innovative approach that combines a reduction in losses with an increase in the percentage of the GNP dedicated to help the third world to fight disease and poverty. The law of the percentages. How can this be done? Losses in work force due to stress, anxiety and depression represent about 10% of the GNP according to Mind and data from the WHO. Only in the UK this represents 172,000 million euros, 55% from the public sector and 45% from the private sector, so anything that can be done to reduce this loss represents extra income for these sectors and therefore they will be more receptive to increase the percentage of the GNP allowed to help the third world which will result in better health and less poverty, and poverty is something related to ill health.

In the western world governments dedicate a certain percentage of the Gross National Product (GNP) to help the third world or underdeveloped countries. This percentage varies from 0.3% to 0.7% of the GNP and every year thousands of NGA’s struggle to increase this percentage but, from where does this money come from? Taxes. And from where do these taxes come from? Mainly from corporations and compaies that by selling their services or products produce the money, because even individual persons, the tax payers, pay their taxes because they have produced an income from their work.

In Alianza para la Depresión we are involved precisely in reducing that loss in the work force through our campaign “Health in the Enterprises” which we have already started successfuly. This is of great interest to companies, trade unions, NGA’s, governments and other institutions, so we have started contacting important representatives of all these organizations so we can work together towards these goals.

6) Description of innovation: Our approach is entirely different from all existing programs and is not limited to any particular country, it can be implemented in all those countries that contribute a percentage of their GNP to aid underdeveloped countries.

Our self-help groups have proven through 11 years experience and more than 7,000 patients, that we have an efficiency rate of 40% in treating stress, anxiety and depression and as said before we have already started a program called “Health in the Enterprises” for that purpose. Besides, we are now involved in a campaign with the objective of obtaining the cooperation of NGA’s, trade unions, government, institutions and the business world. A foundation that represents the largest department store in Europe is thinking in organizing an international symposium to launch this project. We are in contact with the president of this Corporation.

The relation between costs and results is extremely favourable because our treatment is very economical. To give you an idea, a saving of 4,000 million euros en losses due to mood disorders in the business world will cost less than 400 million euros.

Our treatment with self-help groups is much less expensive than the doctors or psychologists. A very important research by Cole,Tucker & Frieman states that one dollar spent in associations like ours saves four dollars in health care expenses (American Journal of Health Promotion,1987, pages 12-15).

With our self-help groups there are less visits to the psychiatrists and psychologists, less admission in the hospitals, more rational use of the medicines, etc. All these facts are of great importance for the governments that have ample coverage of the Social Security. So if we add these savings to the 4,000 million euros of loss reduction we reach considerable figures that will allow the government to designate a higher percentage of funds to help improve health and relief poverty in countries in need of this.

7) Operational model: Our main activities are to help people suffering from mood disorders like stress, anxiety and depression of all ages, men and women, mainly of low classes, working or retired, and to contribute to reduce the losses derived from these diseases in the work force. Our self-help groups represent a new treatment much less expensive that traditional treatments and with an efficiency rate of about 40% that can be increased by adding the number of days and hours of these groups, and this is what we intend to do when our campaign to reduce losses is at full speed.

8) Human resources: At present, our team consists of 8 people and with the partnership of ICAS that we have signed recently, we have 200 additional cooperators and we intend to reach new partnerships in the near future. Their background covers many fields from psychiatrists and psychologists to professors and businessmen. Experts in emotional therapy and intelligence to experts in time management, coaching, creative thinking and pessimism. A psychiatrist in our team is teaching general practitioners in mood disorders.

9) Key operational partnerships: At present, we have two partnerships. ICAS and Zilinder Consultants that cover all the expertise mentioned in point 8, but we do not reject the possibility of new partnerships in the future with other NGA and Foundations interested in our project.

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: Yes

          • How do you assure affordability?: We charge a monthly fee to the enterprise whose employees come to our specific self-group for them, also to members of our association, and we have started a piggy bank campaign in 55 establishments.

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: 120

          • Other funding sources: The piggy bank campaign will represent about 200% of the operating costs but not before approximately 6 months.

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: With our new partnerships and our campaign “Health in the Enterprises” we guarantee sustainability in the long term.

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 7,000

          • Clients in the past year: 500

          • Percentage of low-income clients: 80

          • Impact: We have an excellent record on impact and many letters to testify these results.

          • Overall "market": In previous paragraphs we have mentioned the magnitude of the potential demand but we are going to be more specific in this point. We are going to refer to Spain only. Our objective or market share is 10,000 million euros (long term). Efficiency rate 40% = 4,000 million reduction of losses. As far as other markets we can be a sort of a launching platform since we already have the experience and know-how and belong to a federation called GAMIAN-Europe representing 57 countries and are going in November to Belgium to present our project. Our long term objective of 4,000 million reduction in losses represents more than ten times the money assigned by the government to help third world. countries

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: Our plan is to have 20 enterprises in three years plus the clients of the 57 associates of GAMIAN-Europe in other countries. But with the help of the government, trade- unions, other NGA’s, foundations, etc. this plan can grow much faster. We want to emphasize that very important health associations, like Cancer, HIVS, Doctors without Borders, Multiple Sclerosis , etc. are very sympathetic towards our association because depression is very common among their members for obvious reasons.

13) Policy change: The policy change is easy because it really does no require a big change al all. Only to dedicate a larger percentage of GNP to help health issues in the third world without requiring more funds because there are going to be available through our project of reducing losses.

14) Origin of the initiative: Through associations of ideas. Through combining percentages of losses and percentages of help to the third world both of the GNP of different countries. Jaime Smith, founder of our association, comes from the business world and creative thinking is his best credential. 11 years experience in Alianza para la Depresion, living exclusively on ideas.

Contact Information:
Jaime  Smith Semprun
Ashoka Fellow
Founder and Vice President
ALIANZA PARA LA DEPRESION
(NGO)
General Margallo 27, 1D - 28020 Madrid
Spain
Tel: 34 91 5703003
Fax: 34 91 5702476
Email: smith@alianzadepresion.com
Website: alianzadepresion.com