On Friday November 25th 2022, the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare to Work organized an Empower.Ment Focus Group day in Leiden. The focus group has among others discussed the guide and the glossary of the project. Today we publish part 2, a summary of the highlights what’s been discussed on the Dutch focus group day regarding the Empower.Ment glossary

Below a summary in a video about the Dutch Empower.Ment focus group day (including Part I).

Dutch Focus Group – How we talk about Health matters ! Part 2: The ‘’I say, you say, we say’’ Glossary

How we Talk About Mental Health Matters Part 1 & 2: A Video

The second Training activity of the EMPOWER.ment project took place from the 20th to the 23^rd September 2022 in Mati, Greece. The EMPOWER.ment project tries to include, integrate and empower people with mental health issues. The week has been full of meetings and development of the core activities of the project.

ANIMA

The week started on Tuesday with a catch up meeting where our hostpartner Anima presented the agenda and activities for the whole week. Then, we had two online talks with Mary Boile and John Read about mental health and different approaches used. The partnership also visited the ANIMA premises in Athens, where all the partners had a nice talk with service users and workers and their way of working.

Maritina from ANIMA presented several WHO Good practices. The partnership also discussed and worked on the next steps to finalize IO2, the Glossary, with all the definitions of the words and the new approach. Furthermore, partners checked IO1 to see what were the missing points

On Thursday, Luca from Unimore University (Italy) showed us the first steps for the Empower.ment platform, different options and the partners discussed how would be the best way to proceed with the content development. In the afternoon, the partnership enjoyed a cultural visit in Athens.

To finalize the week, all partners visited “Myrtillo”, a social cooperative enterprise where also some points of IO1, the methodological guide of Empower.ment were discussed with local experts.

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.’

The EMPOWER.Ment project has its transnational project meeting in The Netherlands. On Monday and Tuesday November 29-30th 2021 the partnership wil meet in Area071, at Leiderdorp. The project introduces and ensures empowerment and inclusive support for people with severe mental health disease (SMHD), through preparation (training), mindset (toolkit) and supervision (guide) for volunteers, family/friends, professionals and students. The Empower.Ment project is co-funded by Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union.

Agenda Dutch Host Meeting

www.empower-ment.eu

The EMPOWER.Ment project introduces and ensures empowerment and inclusive support for people with severe mental health disease (SMHD), through preparation (training), mindset (toolkit) and supervision (guide) for volunteers, family/friends, professionals and students. The Empower.Ment project is co-funded by Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union.

From inspiration to impact

The first output we are developing for the Empower.ment partnership is a methodological guide on EMPOWER.Ment: from inspiration to impact – a guide to incorporate the results into everyday life, clinical practice, support and services: A set of guidelines from it’s inspiration and creation, to it’s monitoring and evaluation, as well as presenting ways for volunteers, families, friends, trainees, students, professionals and peers who support and/or work with people with severe mental health difficulties, so as to:

• Become familiar with all features and elements of the project, severe mental health difficulties and inclusion
• Get to know all recent evidence and good practices that are related to inclusion in severe mental health difficulties
• Learn about available resources in the field of mental health through an inclusive point of view
• Understand how to practically incorporate this new approach in their practice while working/supporting people with severe mental health disease
• Network with organisations and/or people that have similar interests and experience
• Find peers and support through their everyday practice

At the same time, the guide can be useful to youth workers, trainers, professionals in mental healthcare, policy makers and other interested parties.

The guide is innovative in terms of Content information. All data on mental health attitudes, beliefs and inclusion through the percpective of the UNCRPD and latest scientific evidence is yet to be found in simple and totally comprehensive terms and language. We aim at forming documents that depict simple ways of addressing the needs of people with smhd in everyday life and activities. Introduction of a new way of talking about smhd practically through this guidelines. Introducing a new way of talking about mental health, no matter how severe the condition is considered to be, is a need for many researchers, professionals and people with lived experience, as well. The guide will be the first paradigm of incorporating the experience of the other two intellectual outputs of the project in real life/worklife. Simplicity in science. We aim at giving all information of science and evidence through a simple way, suitable for all, in order to be understood. Good practices that seem to work throughout Europe and/or internationally in including equally people with smhd in the activities and/or discussion that has to do with them. There is no precedent for that, yet, in a practical way. Although IMPACT is something to be measured on longterm level, the guide, as well as all outputs of this project, can have multiplier effects in mental health in the following field can be used as:

• Learning material to related courses for students, soon to be professionals
• Quality improvement tool for mental health services
• Policy making tool for mental health, connecting people with lived experience to the services provided to support them

We expect the guide to be used in volunteer groups, youth groups, in mental health services. The Empower.Ment website will have a special space for support networking the services and people who use the guide, so as to increase its impact.

Empower.Ment ActionPlans

The Empower.Ment partnership has started up two work groups around the Methodological guide on EMPOWER.Ment and the Toolkit “We say, You say, They say” – a glossary for a new inclusive approach in mental health support. The work groups have been working on action plans for the Guide and the Glossary. More news in our next articles.

People with disabilities, people with severe mental health diseases, experience a greater level of social exclusion, due to various reasons, with lack of knowledge, ignorance and stigma being the predominant ones among them. In other words, it is not the condition per se of the people with severe mental health disease that obliges them to not participate in social activities, work, live like all, but the beliefs that surround their condition and them in general. The Empower.ment Partnership had an OnLine Meeting on May 31st and discussed these issues and how we can develop empowerment and support tools for social inclusion and participation…

Empower.Ment Partnership

Although there is an increase of the population who experience severe mental health disease, research shows, ansd have being diagnosed with a severe mental health disease throughout the EU over the past years, little has been achieved from their inclusion point of view. That causes a serious human burden, family/friends burden, professionals’ lack of therapeutic success and serious discrimination and violation of human rights. The proposed project aims at empowering people with severe mental health disease to be included socially, through ensuring their inclusion in every step of the training and/or therapeutic pathway – from planning to evaluation. That, will be acheived through the proper training and preparation of volunteers, friends/family, mental health professionals, university students, who surround and support people with severe mental health disease.

At the same time, the outcomes of the project will facilitate all people surrounding a person with severe mental health disease, to ensure it’s equal participation in every aspect of their life. On the other hand, trainers, trainees, professionals, volunteers and youth workers, support workers, as well as family and friends, all will become familiar with ways of social inclusion and be acquainted with solutions while working with people with severe mental helath disease. Finally, this project will introduce a cross-European terminology on severe mental health disease, that can play an important role in forming new beliefs for severe mental health distress, which, in consequence, may lead to a new approach in the social inclusion of people with severe mental health disease. Taking into account the fact that more and more people experience severe mental helath disease, making sure that they participate in the planning and implementation of others’ training and/or their own therapeutic path, is a crucial factor for the promotion of social inclusion for this social group. It is equally important to have in mind that mental health difficulties have a cross-cultural and inter-national nature, so, this project can be of use to every european country.

General Objectives
To introduce and ensure empowerment and inclusive support for people with severe mental health disease, through preparation (training), mindset (toolkit) and supervision (guide) for volunteers, family/friends, professionals, students,

Specific Objectives
•To empower people with severe mental health disease, ‘feeling to be included’
•To support all interested in supporting people with smhd while being inclusive and empowering towards them
•To align provided support with the UNCRPD, EU mental health action plan and respect of human rights of people with severe mental health disease
•To promote inclusive support training in mental health through a new language and mindset

The project involves a Greek Ngo, an Italian Social Cooperative, an Italian University, the Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work, a Cypriot training company, and an Icelandic Ngo, committed in initiatives and
services addressed to people with severe mental health difficulties. Each country offers a different insight and approach on methodologies (theoretical, practical, scientific) concerning severe mhd, allowing for the project to be complete & adequate for volunteers, trainees, professionals, friends/family, people with severe mental health disease.

Activities
The Empower.Ment partnership will produce:

• Methodological guide on EMPOWER.Ment: from inspiration to impact – a guide to incorporate the results into everyday life, clinical practice, support and services
• Toolkit “We say, You say, They say” – a glossary for a new inclusive approach in mental health support
• EMPOWER.Ment e-learning module via MOOC, in order to train volunteers, youngsters, family, professionals into inclusive support for people with severe mental helath disease
• Empower.ment Website