All Policies for a Healthy Europe – Improving citizen’s well-being

New ways of defining economic and societal goals are emerging. The old GDP-centric model is giving way to approaches that place human and environmental well-being at the heart of government policy. The Sustainable Development Goals are a crucial example of this, as is the growing emphasis on the need to ensure ‘inclusive growth’ and reduced inequalities. If the EU is to respond to the needs and concerns of its citizens, it is vital that the new European institutions should embrace the paradigm shift. Citizens’ well-being must be at the centre of EU policies.

GAMIAN-Europe calls for concrete action to empower those affected by mental ill health

Empowering people affected by mental ill health is beneficial to individuals and their carers. It is also crucial for developing more patient centered, efficient and cost-effective health systems.

This is the key message of a comprehensive Call to Action launched by GAMIAN-Europe today.
The Call, developed with the direct input from a variety of leading EU-level and national (mental) health stakeholders, addresses what can be undertaken concretely to overcome the current pervasive disempowering attitudes and behaviours towards people affected by mental ill health.

GAMIAN-Europe, a patient-driven organisation advocating the rights of those affected by mental ill health, developed this Call as one of its priorities as the huge prevalence and impact of mental health conditions cannot be overlooked: 11 % of the European population experience mental disorders every year. The proportion of national health budgets devoted to mental health ranges between 4% to 13% across the EU.

Mental health conditions go hand in hand with substantial costs and consequences impacting on individuals, families and carers, health and social systems, the economy and society as a whole. As a consequence, there is an obvious need to address these conditions in the most effective and appropriate way. Empowered patients, managing their own care and treatment, can help address this need.

While the notion of and need for patient empowerment has gained ground for physical health conditions in recent years, this is not generally the case for those affected by mental ill health. Likewise, when it comes to physical health, patients are generally viewed as sufficiently competent to self-manage their treatment and care – as opposed to those affected by mental health problems. The Call therefore underlines that most people with mental ill health, most of the time, do have the competence to self-manage their treatment and care.

Clearly, perceptions and services should be changed to reflect the need for more empowerment and patient involvement in the field of mental health. The Call to Action urges the various different categories of stakeholders involved to take appropriate action to effect progress in their specific areas of expertise.

The Call to Action has already been endorsed by some 25 EU-level and national (mental) health-related organisations as well as by a number of MEPs. GAMIAN-Europe is now warmly inviting all interested organisations to also endorse the Call, as widespread support for its principles and recommendations will stimulate and facilitate implementation across the EU.

EUFAMI supports EBC’s Statement calling on the European Commission

EUFAMI supports EBC’s Statement calling on the European Commission, European Parliament, and the Council of the EU to increase the future budget of “Horizon Europe” to a minimum of €120 billion.  The call also emphasises that it is essential that a much higher proportion of the research budget is allocated to the “health” cluster.

Third EU Health Programme – 2018 call for proposals open

The Work Programme 2018 will focus resources on European Reference Networks for rare diseases, health promotion, mitigating cross-border health threats and medical devices. The deadline for submitting proposals is 26 April 2018.

Share4Carers

Sharing Good Practices for the Psychoeducation

of Children of Parents

with mental health problems in Europe

The ‘’Share4Carers’’ project will encourage the use of key solutions to provide and promote psychoeducation and raise awareness about the societal impact of being children of parents with mental health problems in Europe. These key solutions are being developed by a project partnership of organisations from Belgium, Greece, Italy and Turkey. The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

A Kick-Off meeting was organized in January 2020 at the offices of the European Parliament in Athens, Greece. Since then due to the Covid19 pandemic, representatives of the project partnership have continued to meet virtually to share good practices, exchange perspectives on effective advocacy strategies, and learn how to engage with decision-makers at national and EU levels.  EUFAMI is one of the project partners and hopes to communicate the project results by early 2022.  

At present, EUFAMI would like to ask their member organisations to also share any developed good practice models for young carergivers.

Please use the following weblink to submit this information:

COVID-19 and Mental Health

The current situation regarding COVID-19 is affecting everyone. These times can be especially tough on people’s mental health. To provide everyone with trustworthy and relevant information regarding COVID-19, EUFAMI has listed a collection of useful websites.

The first section consists of a collection of websites with information on COVID-19 in general and advice for carers. The second section consists of websites that provide good advice for maintaining good mental health during the Corona crisis. Lastly, there is a section with websites that were recommended by EUFAMI’s member organisations. Read on to find out whether these websites are able to help you and your family.

General Information about COVID-19

For Everyone

UPDATE Prospect Plus

The Kick-Off Event

In March 2020 the Prospect Plus Kick-Off Event took place.

Originally this would have been a face to face meeting in the Netherlands. However sadly, due to the current worldwide influence of the Coronavirus, this became impossible. The meeting was therefore held with the use of ZOOM online video conferencing.

This was a first-time experience for nearly all the participants. Although there was an initial reluctance to the idea of going ahead with the meeting online, after 3 days of various sessions, all the participants were positive about the experience and the progress achieved.

So who were the participants?

Finland, France and Spain have all developed in recent years new training content for the Prospect Family & Friends Training Programme. The virtual meeting therefore looked at both the feedback and comments collected on the original Prospect Training Programme content from all participants and also the newly developed training content.

The objective of the discussions was to

• A create a concept version of the EUFAMI Family and Friends Prospect Plus Training Programme which will be tested is 4 pilot countries.

The outcome of the meeting was a 10-page document listing further suggestions, recommendations and best practice. The work has now begun on incorporating these into a draft concept version of the training programme.

At present there is a new virtual meeting planned later in this month of April. The Kick-Off participants will then look at the concept draft and agree if it is ready for testing.

In terms of testing, no plans can be made right now. We are all holding our breaths and hoping that this Coronavirus time will soon be over.

Once it is possible to test, collect feedback and evaluate, the aim is still to finalise a EUFAMI Prospect Plus Family and Friends Training Programme. In 2021, the plan is to continue the updating process and focus on the Common Ground Module, the People with Self-Experience and the Health and Social Care Professionals Training Programmes.

We hope that this update finds you all well!

Prospect Plus Programme – Press Release

Leuven, 31st October 2019

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, the European Federation of Families of People Affected by Mental Ill Health (EUFAMI) is pleased to announce the launch of a new partnership with the Janssen EMEA Fund (Johnson & Johnson Foundation) which will enable EUFAMI to work with its members in updating its Prospect peer to peer Training Programme.

The updated programme, to be relaunched as PROSPECT PLUS, will be used to train facilitators who will then be able to implement the training programme at national level. PROSPECT PLUS aims to provide families and friends with much-needed tools to enable them to gain confidence, improve their coping skills, regain control and improve their quality of life. As was the case with the original Prospect Training programme, PROSPECT PLUS will be subject to ongoing qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

EUFAMI President, Miia Männikkö, welcomed the new partnership saying “The PROSPECT Training programme is of key importance to families and family carers. For many years now EUFAMI has hoped to be able to bring the PROSPECT content and materials up to date, and to include new and innovative components so it can be a state-of-the-art educational programme. This will benefit many families and family carers around the world. EUFAMI is excited to be launching this new partnership with the Janssen EMEA Fund (Johnson & Johnson Foundation), and excited to be able to start work on PROSPECT PLUS”.

Representing the Janssen EMEA Fund, Antonio Delgado, said “Through the Janssen EMEA Fund, managed by the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, we develop initiatives and partnerships to strengthen health systems by supporting and championing the people on the frontlines who are at the heart of delivering care. Mental Health disorders are the leading cause of disability in the world and family members are the primary caregivers of persons with mental illness. We need a comprehensive and coordinated response to managing mental health in community-based settings and family carers must be recognized and supported to improve long-term care patients’ health outcomes. I am proud that we are now building on Johnson & Johnson’s 60 year legacy of innovation in Mental Health and working collaboratively with EUFAMI to support family caregivers in Mental Health”.

Notes:
About EUFAMI
EUFAMI was founded in 1992 after a congress, which took place in 1990 in De Haan, Belgium, where carers from all over Europe shared their experiences of helplessness and frustration when living with severe mental illness. They resolved to work together to help both themselves and the people they cared for.
EUFAMI is a democratic organisation, registered in Belgium as an international non-profit organisation. We have an ongoing commitment to improving care and welfare for people affected by mental ill health. We also enable our member organisations to act jointly at a European Level, combining their efforts and sharing experience.
For more information please visit www.eufami.org

About the Janssen EMEA Fund and the Johnson & Johnson Foundation
The Janssen EMEA Fund represents Janssen’s commitment to work with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation to support Innovative solutions that improve health and well-being in underserved communities. The Johnson & Johnson Foundation supports and champions the people on the front lines who are at the heart of delivering care. Together with our partners, we focus on building and strengthening a robust primary care health workforce – made up of capable, confident and resilient nurses, midwives and community health workers (CHWs) – so that they can provide quality care to the communities they serve.
About Prospect and PROSPECT Plus
Prospect is an innovative European training initiative which opens up fresh perspectives for individuals with direct experience of mental ill health, whether it be people with self-experience, their family and friends or health and social care professionals.
The initiative has produced three training programmes for participants belonging to each of the above groups, and a Common Ground Module for participants from all three groups.
Prospect is a project developed by the European Federation of Associations of Families of People with Mental Illness (EUFAMI) which was initially brought together with the input from sixteen partner organisations and representatives of people with mental ill health, family carers, health and social care professionals from twelve European countries.
PROSPECT Plus will, in its first phase, enable EUFAMI and its member organisations to work on updating the first module of the programme, the one dedicated to family and friends.

About World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day celebrates awareness for the global community in an empathetic way, with a unifying voice, helping those feel hopeful by empowering them to take action and to create lasting change. World Mental Health Day 2019 focuses on suicide prevention. For more information please visit https://wfmh.global/world-mental-health-day-2019/