The EMPOWER.ment project tries to include, integrate and empower people with mental health issues. The week has been full of meetings, work and cultural activities, all very important for the implementation of the project. The EMPOWER.ment training activities took place from the 6^th June to the 10^th June 2022 in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Training week ended with an open conference at UNIMORE.

Empower.Ment Programme

The week started with a conference where the EMPOWER.Ment project was presented to the students of the Degree Course in Psychiatric Rehabilitation Technique (UNIMORE) and to Health Professionals in the San Lazzaro Campus. After the study visit the partnership had their first session meeting on IO2 ‘The Glossary’, where the terms are defined, included and the structure is set out. In the afternoon all the partners visited the historical part of Reggio Emilia.

The following days the Intellectual outputs 1 and 2 were also discussed in the shared meeting sessions. The partners also enjoyed a visit to the l’Ovile cooperative, a Guided tour of the Museum of the History of Psychiatry and the Archive of historical medical records and also a visit to the “Sentiero Facile” Association where people with mental health lived experiences explained their journey as facilitators.

Open Conference UNIMORE Reggio Emilia

The week ended with and Open conference at the university in Reggio Emilia: “Stories, philosophies, laws: different experiences of Mental Health” where partners and professionals had the opportunity to share their views, experiences and knowledge about mental health on the different countries.

Work is Treatment, Treatment is Work

During the Conference each country presented the state of the art of the mental health system in their own country. This was very interesting and gave a lot of clarity in the differences and similarities of the partnership countries. Pieter van Schie, director of DFW2W presented the Dutch framework and structure around people with Severe Mental Health Difficulties and their journey to work: The Dutch system always starts with a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ and believes in work is treatment and treatment is work. Everyone can do something is the perspective of each person who wants to work. The stats of The Netherlands show more then 3 decades of low unemployment rates. This is the result of culture change, which started with the implementation of the WWB in 2004 and the ‘Work First’ approach.’