Prof. Clemens Hosman

Clemens Hosman is Professor of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention of Mental Disorders at the Maastricht University (Department of Health Promotion) and Radboud University Nijmegen (Department of Clinical Psychology), the Netherlands, and director of their common Prevention Research Centre. He is guest professor of prevention at the Faculty of Education and Social Rehabilitation of the University of Zagreb (Croatia). His research centers on prevention of depression, prevention of transmission of mental disorders from parents to children (COPMI), community interventions, effectiveness research, effect moderators, guidelines for program development and effect management. He is co-author of the PREFFI 2.0, an effect management instrument that aims to enhance the implementation of scientific knowledge on effectiveness in prevention policy and practice. He is offering graduate and postgraduate seminars and training on prevention in mental health at both Dutch universities and in some other European countries.

He is involved in prevention since 1969 and played a crucial role in the development of this field in the Netherlands. He has occupied many international functions, such as chair of the European WHO Task Force on Mental Health Promotion and Prevention (1995-1998) and the Clifford Beers Foundation (1996-2000, 2008 –), board member of the international Society for Prevention Research (1999-2003) and member/chair of the Global Consortium for Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health (2000 –). He has been involved in the organization of World Conferences on Promotion of Mental Health and Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders since 2000. He was WHO prevention consultant and edited the WHO Report on Evidence-based Prevention of Mental Disorders (Hosman, Jane-Llopis & Saxena, 2004). Over the last 20 years he has been invited by many European countries, US, Canada and Australia as a consultant in the development of prevention policy, practice and research. He was co-leader of several European projects on prevention and mental health promotion financed by the European Union and aimed at capacity building, dissemination of effective programs and network development.

He received the 2002 International Collaborative Prevention Research Award of the US Society of Prevention Research; and the 2001 Friend of the Early Career Preventionist Award for his life long work in educating new generations of prevention experts. In 2005 he was given the honorary membership of the Dutch Society for Prevention and Health Promotion.