Empower.Ment

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