Newsletter | ProMenpol

Newsletter Issue No. 12

Tilia Bousios — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:21:00 GMT

ProMenPol Credits

Dear colleagues, After the successful completion of the ProMenPol project this will be our last newsletter. The ProMenPol Team would like to take the opportunity to thank everybody for their enormous support, contribution and feedback. We have enjoyed working with you. New challenges and projects are coming up and we would like to place ProMenPol also in your hands. Once you have registered as a member for the ProMenPol website (free registration), you have several possibilities to disseminate your own events, news, documents and even tools. For a short explanation how this can be done, please scroll down to the end of this newsletter.
We are quite confident that ProMenPol lives on, therefore let this rather be a bye-for-now instead of a farewell.
All the best,
Dr. Karl Kuhn
on behalf of the ProMenPol-Team

The Mental Health Promotion Network (MHPNet)

The ProMenPol database includes more than 400 globally available tools. With the end of this project the members of the ProMenPol consortium have decided to continue the work and maintenance of the website. Moreover, the consortium sees the need to create a global network for mental health promotion building on the work ProMenPol and offering a broad scope of mental health promotion tools.

Mental Health Promotion is a top priority not only for Europe: the economic crisis has shown that the burden of this crisis manifests itself in mental ill health. To promote the resilience of individuals with innovative tools is one of the future ambitions of MHPNet.

A lot of policies show the need for such a network:

One of the four priority areas of the 2005 re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy on Growth and Jobs has been to ‘invest in people and modernise labour markets’. More specifically, the objectives of the strategy include improving the skills, employability and adaptability of the workforce, as well as promoting the functioning of labour markets in the EU, including the greater participation of population groups that currently face difficulties and may be excluded from the labour market. Promoting and maintaining good mental health and wellbeing in the workplace is of key relevance to the achievement of these objectives across the European Union.

This importance of mental health and wellbeing is also recognised in the Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work for 2007-2012. This refers to the contribution that guaranteeing quality and productivity at work can play in promoting economic growth and employment. It highlights the common and increasing contributions of stress and poor mental health as reasons for work absenteeism and occupational disability. Taking account of projections from the WHO that psychological problems will be the principle source of incapacity by 2020, it advocates a change towards a more preventive culture, including making the promotion of mental health at the workplace a priority.

The Commission White Paper "Together for Health: A Strategic Approach for the EU 2008-2013" in emphasising the substantial economic costs of mental disorders, noted that the majority of these are due to lost productivity in the workplace. Community actions in the field of mental health and measures to promote the health of the workforce were announced in this document.

With over 800 newsletter recipients, over 250 conference participants, 60 policy workshop participants and more than 40.000 hits per month on the website, the ProMenPol project has already created an informal network in the field of mental health promotion across Europe. In the context of two follow-up projects the enhancement this network is ensured. Additionally, two new projects will build on the ProMenPol work with 1) the conceptualisation of an MHP E-learning tool and 2) the preparation of handbooks for mental health promotion.

Until the network has been formalised in a more official way, the ProMenPol newsletter will be continued on a quarterly basis on behalf of the network. More information about the follow-up projects and network activities will be available at www.mentalhealthpromotion.net

John Henderson

In early January we heard the sad news the Dr. John Henderson, a member of the ProMenPol project team whom many of you will have known and respected, died on the 4th January. John passed away peacefully at home, in the company of his family, and after a characteristically determined and dignified fight with cancer.
John served Mental Health Europe as a senior policy adviser, and the Director of Mental Health Europe, Mary van Dievel said:

"We will all deeply miss him, but we are lucky to have such good memories of all he has done. John was a true European, believing deeply in the benefits that come with partnerships and collaboration in Europe and the European Union. He dedicated his life to improve the lives of others less fortunate. Lately he had been involved in working towards a better mental health for people and communities in Europe. We will not only miss John for the warm person he was, but we will also miss the wisdom he had and shared."

Writing in The Scotsman newspaper, Dr Bill Boyd summarised some of John's career achievements:

"In 1976 he was appointed mental health adviser to the World Health Organisation's south-east Asia office. Based in New Delhi, Henderson brought his expertise and passion to a huge "parish", which stretched from Pakistan to Outer Mongolia, serving a quarter of the world's population. His accounts of his travels and his meetings with local political, medical and community leaders were always fascinating, and his special skills in firm and fair diplomacy, and his experience and abilities in bringing people, professions and politicians together helped make an impact in a region where, at the time, mental health and the rights of people with mental illness were significantly neglected.

Returning in 1980 to Europe, this time as the mental health adviser to WHO's European office in Copenhagen, he remained for the next five years involved in developing a wide range of mental health programmes across Europe at a time of considerable political and social upheaval. His work focused on the reform of psychiatry and the de-institutionalisation of outdated asylums in eastern European countries, helping to ensure they addressed some of the appalling human rights abuses suffered by the mentally ill.

He threw himself into the European mental health scene - first with the European Council of the World Federation of Mental Health, becoming president from 1994-97."

Some of you will know Gregor and Nigel, two of John's four sons through their work on mental health work. Over the last few years I came to know him through the work I have been doing on an EU level. John was a psychiatrist, in the social mould. He cared for people, not disorders, and from his early days in practice in Aberdeenshire to his last days of work only months ago, he was tirelessly committed to the cause, and took it, with eloquence and effect to the highest levels of policy and government.

At the Scottish Office and later with the WHO in South East Asia and Europe, John championed dignity for people with mental illness, de-institutionalisation, recovery, and person centeredness. When he retired from clinical practice he continued to work tirelessly for NGOs in mental health.

He was one of the international observers who worked with the EC and Greek government to open up the hospital on the island of Leros, where many people with mental health problems were treated appallingly, isolated and restrained. He helped change the system, with the support of the EC and the government, bridging the gaps, and bringing together disparate viewpoints. He continued this work in eastern and south-eastern Europe in the last decade. He will be sorely missed there.

John managed to reach and influence policy and politicians at highest level, whilst never 'selling short' the ordinary man or vulnerable person for the often tempting compromise that risks being a lowest common denominator. He taught me a lot about dancing on that line, about harnessing passion and drive so it becomes fusion and not fission. I was privileged indeed to be able to call on his advice, and learn at his feet.

Chris O'Sullivan

Dissemination Possibilities with ProMenPol Website

The ProMenPol website was designed to act as a pan-European gateway to results, documentation and related issues emanating from the project. Additionally, the website holds several possibilities for registered members to disseminate their own results, tools, events and news.

For ProMenPol members accessible parts of the website include the following sections:

News & Events: Here latest developments in the field of mental health promotion can be published ranging from conference announcements, project launches, new publications to policy developments. Newly added events and news will be displayed in the right hand column on the ProMenPol website’s main page.

Projects: Here projects related to mental health (and its promotion) can be entered and described. Mainly projects which are primarily undertaken on a European level have been entered. However the section is open to actions on national and local level, too.

Networks and other Organisations: The section contains links to mental health associated networks and organisations.

Policy Documents: Policy related documents in the field of mental health (promotion), such as the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-Being are entered here. These policy documents may relate to activities and actions on both a European level as well as a national level.

Bibliography: References to (scientific) articles regarding mental health and public health are provided in this section. The section is open to English references as well as publications in other languages.

Database: In addition to retrieving tools form the ProMenPol Database, it is also possible for registered members to upload tools to the database themselves.

In addition, registered member receive the ProMenPol newsletter which is send out on a quarterly basis and is used as a vehicle to disseminate information about latest developments in the field mental health promotion.

In order to become a ProMenPol member users must sign up using the ‘Sign up Now!’ link provided on the left side of the screen – just below the ‘Login’ button in the Members Area.

Once accessed, users are provided with the ‘Members Area-ProMenPol Registration’ screen which requests the users email address for verification purposes and the commencement of the registration process.

Please Note, when the ‘start registration’ button is clicked an e-mail notification will be automatically sent to the user’s e-mail along with their members password.

Once a valid email is entered and the start registration button is clicked users are provided with the following ‘Members Profile’ screen (next page).

The Members Profile screen asks users to complete basic information about themselves and the respective organisation that they represent. Additionally, questions about how they would like to engage with the project are asked as is the privacy question “Make My Profile Visible to the Public?”.

Once the registration process is completed, users may then login using the ‘members area login’ screen and begin to add their events, news, publications and tools to the ProMenPol database.

A full description on how to enter tools in the ProMenPol database can be found at: ProMenPol Database Description

Download Newsletter No.: 12

Newsletter Issue No. 11

Tilia Bousios — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:10:00 GMT

ProMenPol Lives On

As you are aware, the ProMenPol team has been looking for opportunities to carry on the work of the project in a number of areas. We can now announce that we have been successful in securing two new projects which are concerned with mental health promotion in the three settings.
The first of these is T-MHP (Training for Mental Health Promotion) which has been funded by the Leonardo programme in Ireland. This two year project, which has just begun, will produce a set of e-learning courses in MHP targeted at each of the three ProMenPol settings of interest – schools, workplaces and older people’s residences. These courses will be available in multiple languages, and when the first versions of them are available next year, they will be accessible through the ProMenPol Portal.

The second project, which is due to start in the New Year, will produce a set of MHP handbooks or manuals, again aimed at the same three settings. Funded by DG Sanco, the MHP-Hands project will run for three years and will focus on supporting the practice of MHP in the settings of interest. It aims to build on the work of the field trials in ProMenPol and also to extend the geographical coverage of the ProMenPol to include more representation from the new Member States. This project will also produce a newsletter on a quarterly basis and will therefore follow up the work of this title. It will also be possible to follow the progress of this project through the ProMenPol site.

We believe that the work of ProMenPol in promoting MHP across Europe is of great importance and that we have already come a long way in highlighting the importance of the issue of MHP. We are therefore committed to developing the work even further in the coming years. To this end, the ProMenPol partners are also involved in a number of other proposals that are complementary to the work of the project. We hope to have some more news on these proposals soon and we will keep all of the ProMenPol network informed about these developments.

Knowledge and Policy for Mental Health in Scotland

A research team from the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh are investigating how knowledge is used in mental health policy making in Scotland. This research forms part of the KNOWandPOL integrated project , a five year (2006-2011) European-wide study funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Program (Project # 0288848-2)which is investigating the role of knowledge in health and education policy in eight European countries.

To date four research reports based on the Scottish mental health case study have been completed. These are:

Scottish Mental Health Policy: Context and Analysis

The project began by mapping the field of mental health policy in Scotland through examining the individuals, organisations and knowledge which comprise the policy making community. This research consisted in a literature review and an extensive set of interviews. The report describes the way knowledge is produced, shared and used in the creation of mental health policy, as well as the institutional connections between those working in different organizations: The Social and Cognitive Mapping of Policy - Scotland Health Policy: Context and Analysis

Work from this stage of the project has also been published in the Mental Health Review Journal: Smith-Merry, J., R. Freeman and S. Sturdy, 2008, ‘Organising Mental Health in Scotland’ Mental Health Review Journal, 13(4):16-26.

Consultation as Public Action: Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland

This report examines the way that knowledge was mobilised in the consultation process guiding the development of the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing in and which resulted in the policy statement Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland (TAMFS). This research involved observation of the main stages of the process, including local stakeholder events and meetings of the National Reference Group, interviews with key informants and analysis of documents. Towards A Mentally Flourishing Scotland: Consultation Process as Public Action

The focus of this part of the project was on the way knowledge is developed and communicated across countries, for which we took WHO’s 2005 Declaration and Action Plan for Mental Health in Europe as a case study. Two reports based on this research were produced:

A third phase of the project (2009-2010) is examining the concept of recovery in mental health policy Scotland and, separately, at the use of indicators of policy impact on mental health and well-being.

The research team have organised a number of feedback and training sessions and have distributed our findings widely within the mental health policy community in Scotland. For more information or to be added to the mailing list for project information please contact the research fellow for the project: Dr Jennifer Smith

More information can also be found at our project website

Lessons from the Field Trials

In the course of the ProMenPol project several organisations and institutions from different settings have conducted Field Trials of MHP tools or reported on prior mental health promotion (MHP) implementation experiences. The aim of the Field Trials was to obtain experiences from practice about the implementation of MHP tools.

Several pilot sites reported on the lessons learned during implementation. The responses from practice provide significant insights which can help to strengthen the mental health capacity of institutions and organisations. Furthermore, the feedback from various practices will help to strengthen the links between practice, science and policy in the field of mental health promotion and protection.

ProMenPol has received practice reports and implementation documentation from six schools, seven workplaces and three older people’s residences. A total of 16 reports are available, which provide valuable insights regarding people’s learning experiences and recommendations which can be drawn for policy and practice from the field.

The majority of implementing organisations and institutions had good or very good implementation experiences and most reported that their MHP initiative succeeded. The desired goals were achieved and the Field Trials reported a high level of acceptance for the MHP tools used. In addition, the target groups (pupils, employees or residents) reported high levels of satisfaction. Field Trial participants reported valuable and sustainable organisational changes, including positive effects on mental health and an increased sense of well-being among the individuals involved.

In addition to this Pilot Sites provided valuable feedback and lessons learned which yielded a remarkable amount of information:

In relation to the practice of MHP, the lessons learned are:

Increased awareness and knowledge about mental health promotion
The importance of using well designed and structured, user-friendly and easy to implement MHP initiatives
The benefits of using project management techniques
The need to tailor the intervention to the specific needs of your target group (respect the diversity of the target group and involve them in the planning if possible)
Ensure high levels of participation
Adapt the MHP tool as necessary (e.g. avoid overlapping with existing initiatives)
Make sure you have enough preparation and implementation time and make a realistic schedule for the initiative
Provide appropriate training, resources and available supportive and encouraging environment
Seek the support and involvement of skilled staff
Evaluate the MHP implementation on an continuous basis.

In relation to MHP policy, the lessons learned included:

Ensure sufficient resources (e.g. skilled staff, training) and financial support (e.g. funding, grants) are available
There is a need to have a developmental element to policy (e.g. parental work, staff support, counselling)
There is a need for Mental Health education and curriculum development (e.g. primary and secondary schools but also for trainers in the field)
Conduct awareness programmes about MHP (e.g. media campaigns such as anti-stigma)
Find local MHP champions for policy initiatives
Integrate MHP in physical activity programmes and in health and safety laws
Support the development of co-operative relationships and networks between experts and practitioners in the field
Promote a more widespread discussion about MHP and well-being issues in a larger context

These results reflect the first qualitative but structured experiences and reports from the implementation in practice of mental health promotion. They give a valuable insight into the implementation practice of schools, work places and residences for older people. The experiences, feedbacks and lessons learned from practice show that it is relatively easy to implement MHP tools.

In most cases MHP implementation was successful and promoted well-being in the beneficiaries. Maybe the most valuable are lessons learned which can help to improve practice in the long run. For this purpose actors on the policy, research and practice level can learn from the responses given from practice and must fit their work in a way that mental health promotion practice can profit from these adaptations.

Download Newsletter No.: 11

Newsletter Issue No.10

Tilia Bousios — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:22:00 GMT

The 2009 ProMenPol Conference

Around 80 practitioners and policy makers from 26 different countries participated in the final ProMenPol conference that took place in Berlin on October 8th and 9th 2009 at BAuA premises.

The major theme of this conference was to explore the interface between policy and practice in mental health promotion bringing together people from both perspectives to allow them to exchange practical views and realities. In addition, this year’s conference was joined by members of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, which launched a new project on mental health promotion in the workplace (see article below).

After being welcomed by Andreas Horst, representative of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and Dr. Karl Kuhn, the leader of the ProMenPol-project, two keynotes laid down the two main themes of the conference. Prof. Ilse Julkunen from THL (National Institute for Health and Welfare) spoke about the challenge of creating scientific evidence that is - as she cited John Dewey – “knowledge of the practical that is practical to the practical”. Dr. Olaf Tscharnezky from Unilever, Germany, gave insights to his practical experiences with respect to the implementation of mental health promotion in his company.

As a means to support such practice the new version of the ProMenPol toolkit and database were then introduced by Tilia Boussios from Eworx, Dr. Donal McAnaney from Rehab and Dr. Richard Wynne from WRC. The toolkit and the database had been redesigned based on usability tests to enhance the functionality and its ease of use.

In the following, Gert Lang, FRK, presented an overview of the results from the ProMenPol field trials. For each of the three settings (education: Philipp Jugert, BIPP; workplace: Catherine Kilfedder, BT group plc; older people: Arja Suni, Age Institute) practitioners presented their experiences of implementing mental health promotion tools as well as their implications for future practice and policy. Thereafter Dr. Reinhold Sochert officially launched the new ENWHP-project (see article below).

During the first conference day all participants were invited to share their ideas and experiences with respect to the concept of evidence as well as regarding relations between policy, science and practice by writing comments on pin boards which had been set up in the conference room. A great number of people made use of this option. At the end of the day the comments were integrated by Chris O’Sullivan into the panel discussion which he led and in which those issues were lively discussed (participants were: Dr. Ilse Julkunen, THL; Dr. Olaf Tscharnezki, Unilever Germany; Maria Dolores Solé, INSHT; Dr. Donal McAnaney, Rehab).

The second conference day started with an intervention by Jürgen Scheftlein, DG SANCO, who reported on EC’s activities in the field. He introduced the newly established European Mental Health Compass and highlighted the discussion themes of the recently conducted EC thematic conference in Stockholm “Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being of Children and Young People”.

Afterwards the workshop concept was explained by Katrin Zardo, BAuA: Participants were divided into groups according to their setting of interest. Workshop leaders then presented the setting specific results from the ProMenPol field trials with respect to lessons learned for practice and policy. This was used as a starting point of discussion as a means of validating the field trial results.

Participants very actively contributed to the discussion and shared personal experiences from their professional and cultural backgrounds. The minutes of those workshops as well as all conference presentations can be downloaded from the ProMenPol-website.

After listening to the rapporteurs summarizing the workshop discussions in the plenary, Richard Wynne, WRC, presented a final ProMenPol statement, which emphasised lessons learned in the project, the ProMenPol view on research and policy and gave an outlook to future projects building on ProMenPol.

Last but not least, the conference participants were interviewed about the conference (without the ProMenPol-team being present) by the external Evaluator of the project, John Griffith, work2health, before Dr. Karl Kuhn officially closed the event.

Preliminary Results from the ProMenPol Field Trials

An important issue for consideration in the future is to use the potential of positive mental health in practice and the strengthening of the links between practice, science and policy in mental health promotion. Each of these issues will be complemented by implementation reports developed following the Field Trials in ProMenPol.

ProMenPol has received a significant number of practice reports and implementation documentation from six schools, seven workplaces and three older people’s residences. Hence, a total of 16 reports are now available, which provide valuable insights regarding people’s learning experiences and recommendations which have been drawn for policy and practice in the field. The majority of implementers reported good or very good implementation experiences and most reported that their mental health promotion tool or initiative succeeded in meeting the desired goals. There was a great deal of acceptance for the MHP tool and high levels of satisfaction reported by the target populations (pupils, employees or residents). Field Trial participants reported valuable and sustainable organisational changes, including positive effects on mental health and an increased sense of wellbeing among the individuals involved.

In addition, the list of suggestions and recommendations for both practice and policy was detailed and valuable. For example, pilot sites highlighted the importance of the planning and implementing process of MHP projects and the necessity to adapt the tool to the specific needs of the target groups. One of the most important recommendations indicated that a particular mental health promotion strategy, an expert network, practical advice and resources are needed in order to enhance the implementation of mental health promotion and to improve mental functioning among users.

More detailed results and in-depth information will be provided at the end of this year in the final deliverable of the Field Trials of ProMenPol, which will be freely available from the ProMenPol homepage.

A representative from each setting presented the main results of their projects at the third ProMenPol conference.

The New Release of the ProMenPol Database and Toolkit

The final release of the ProMenPol toolkit and database has now been made on the website. We would be very grateful if you could provide us with feedback on the new online database and toolkit content. A specially designed online survey will be distributed to you. We are very grateful to you for your previous feedback which has enabled us to incorporate your suggestions for improvement.

Work. in tune with life. move europe - Official Opening of the new ENWHP Campaign by the European Commission

On the 8th October 2009, the new ENWHP campaign was launched officially by the European Commission at the joint ProMenPol/ENWHP Conference in Berlin.

Under the slogan work. in tune with life. move europe the ENWHP will address the growing problem of mental illness and continue the campaign by focussing on this issue. The objective of the 8th ENWHP initiative is to bring the attention of employers and employees to strategies and programmes that exist to promote mental health at the workplace and to help them recognise their own and colleagues' emotional problems at an early stage. As in the previous campaign, models of good practice in companies and administrations will be identified and guidelines will be produced for management and other stakeholders.

The campaign is now open for participation: Companies will have the opportunity of finding out how mental health promotion can be part of their workplace health promotion programme. With their examples of good practice they can also become a "Move Europe Partner". Click here for more information about the 8th ENWHP Initiative.

Download Newsletter No.:10

Newsletter Issue No. 9

Tilia Bousios — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:27:00 GMT

The 2009 ProMenPol Conference

The Final ProMenPol Conference will take place in Berlin on October 8th and 9th 2009 at the BAuA premises. This Conference will be bigger than in previous years and will bring together a wider range of practitioners and policy makers from all three settings (schools, workplaces and older peoples’ residences) than before. In addition, this year’s conference will be joined by members of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, which will launch a new project on Mental Health Promotion in the Workplace.

The major theme of the 2009 Conference will be to explore the interface between policy and practice in mental health promotion. This exploration will be undertaken through a series of presentations, and workshops which have the aim of bringing together people from both perspectives to allow them to exchange practical views and realities.

The Conference will see the launch of a final version of the ProMenPol toolkit and database. These have been redesigned to enhance both the functionality of the toolkit in terms of the information provided on each tool and also in terms of its ease of use.

The Conference will also present the findings from the PromenPol field trials that have been undertaken. We will hear presentations from some of the people who undertook the field trials and the project team will also present an overview of the lessons to be learned from them.

The 2009 Conference promises to be an interesting and lively event and the ProMenPol team look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Berlin.

The Future of ProMenPol

The ProMenPol project will come to an end in December of this year. During its life, the project has achieved many things both at a technical level and at the level of developing a mental health promotion network within the project. The project team believe that these achievements are considerable and that it would be a pity to let them finish at project end. We are therefore committed to maintaining these achievements into the future and to building on them.

The project team has been successful in acquiring new projects in the area of mental health promotion. While these projects will enable the ProMenPol material to be developed further, especially in relation to training, they will not be able to support all of the functions of ProMenPol.

However, we would like to explore further with you ways in which the ProMenPol can be carried forward. This will be done at the conference and during the final months of the project.

The Mental Health Pact

There have been many developments in relation to the Mental Health Pact in recent months. In particular, dates and venues have been set for 4 of the 5 thematic conferences to be held to support the Pact. These will take place on:

29-30th Sept 2009 – Mental Health in Youth and Education. Stockholm, Sweden.
10-11th Dec 2009 – Prevention of Depression and Suicide. Budapest, Hungary.
21st -22nd April 2010 – Mental Health in Older People. Madrid, Spain.
8-9th Nov 2010 – Mental Health in Workplace Settings. Berlin, Germany

If you would like to know more about these conferences, go to: http://www.ec-mental-health-process.net/implementation.html

As part of the Pact’s activities, it will develop a database of good practices which will be made available online through the Pact website.

Updates to the User Interface of the ProMenPol Database

The ProMenPol database has undergone some significant user interface changes which should help the user even more in reviewing the database, adding tools and retrieving relevant information. Additionally, all the tools have been adopted to the updated ICF and MHP Structuring. We encourage you all to review your tools and in addition take the opportunity to review the new user interface changes.

Review of the ProMenPol Toolkit

In the last issue of the ProMenPol Newsletter, it was promised that the updates to the ProMenPol toolkit and database would be ready in early summer of this year. Unfortunately, the process of redesign has taken somewhat longer than expected and the redesigned toolkit and database will not be fully ready until November.

When it is finished, the updates will incorporate:

Provision of step-by-step instructions on how to implement mental health promotion at a generic level and in each of the three settings
Better links to the tools database
Links to examples of good practice
Links from the tools to examples of their implementation (where available)

However, by the time of the conference, the generic toolkit will be available.

Download Newsletter No.:9

Newsletter Issue No. 8

Tilia Bousios — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:24:00 GMT

European Parliament resolution on Mental Health of 19th February 2009

In follow-up to the establishment of the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being, on 19 February 2009 the European Parliament has adopted unanimously the motion for a resolution on Mental Health. The report, which was presented by Evangelia Tzampazi MEP, Rapporteur for the Committee on the Environment, was under discussion since last November.

The ProMenPol project’s partner Mental Health Europe (MHE) has been engaged in the draft of the document and has tabled some amendments that have been successfully integrated into the report.

In its resolution, the European Parliament supports the Pact’s call on the EU institutions, the Member States and key actors and players to cooperate and take actions on five priority areas for the promotion of the mental health and well-being of the population, combating stigma and social exclusion, strengthening preventive action and self-help and providing support and adequate treatment to people with mental health problems and to their families and carers.

The Parliament encourages the establishment of a multi-stakeholder consultative Platform to implement the European Pact, involving service users, families, carers, NGOs and academics. It also calls on the Member States to support the strengthening of organisations which represent service users and carers in order to facilitate their participation in the formulation and implementation of policy and in all stages of research into mental health.

An important issue highlighted in the report is the call for the adoption of common European guidelines defining disability in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The European Parliament also endorses the Commission proposal for a new directive against discrimination on the basis of religion or beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation beyond the employment sector and its call for the immediate adoption of this directive in order effectively to protect persons with mental health problems from discrimination.

The European Parliament’s initiative has to be welcomed as a key step forward in the implementation of the Pact for Mental Health and Well-being. Even so, the adopted text still puts too much focus on mental illness rather than on the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing.

The final text of the resolution is available on the European Parliament’s website
For further information about MHE policy work on the European Parliament’s resolution on mental health, please contact Mari Fresu, Health Policy Officer.

Merger of Stakes and KTL - Finland

THL has a wide range of tools to carry out its responsibilities: research, follow-up and evaluation, development, expert influence, official tasks as well as international co-operation.

THL seeks to serve the broader society in addition to the scientific community, actors in the field and decision-makers in central government and municipalities.

The new National Institute for Health and Welfare was formed in the beginning of 2009 through the merger of the National Public Health Institute (KTL) and the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES). It operates under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The starting points for establishing the new Institute were the needs of the population and the health and social service system as well as the need to join forces to step up work to promote health and welfare in Finland.

The mission of our new National Institute for Health and Welfare is to promote the well-being and health of the population, prevent diseases and social problems, and to support social and health services. THL carries out its responsibilities through a wide range of activities: research, evaluation and follow-up, development work, expert influence, centralised national services as well as international co-operation. THL is also a statutory statistical authority in health and welfare and maintains and provides a strong knowledge base within its field.

THL seeks to serve the broader society in addition to the scientific community, actors in the field and decision-makers in central government and municipalities.

Promotion of health and well-being as well as supporting and developing the service system and service contents are among the central tasks of the new Institution. The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has four units with altogether 70 experts working in the field of mental health.

Review of the ProMenPol Framework - What to Expect Next

One of the major achievements of ProMenPol has been to produce a framework for describing and categorising mental health promotion tools for each of the three settings of interest. This framework has been used as the basis for the ProMenPol tools database.

The initial version of the framework was based on the WHO’s ICF (International Classification of Functioning) framework and on a typology of mental health promotion developed by the project team. Since this was the first time that such a framework had been developed, the initial framework was perhaps over inclusive and more complex than it needed to be.

However, following feedback from users and an analysis of the ProMenPol teams’ experiences of using it, the framework is now undergoing redesign so that it has more functionality and is easier to use. It will be used as a basis for amending the tools database and will provide a more useful and simpler database for ProMenPol users. It will be available on the website from early summer 2009.

In parallel with the redesign of the database, the ProMenPol toolkit will undergo significant amendment also. Some of the main improvements will be:

Better links to the tools database
Provision of step-by-step instructions on how to implement mental health promotion in each of the three settings
Advice on overcoming common barriers to implementing MHP
Links to examples of good practice
Links from the tools to examples of their implementation (where available)

The ProMenPol team hopes that these improvements will improve the utility of the toolkit and will make it easier for users to use. We would like to extend our thanks to all who have contributed feedback to us so that we can build the improved version.

Lessons Learnt from the ProMenPol Field Trials

The ProMenPol project is a feedback process whereby results from practice and policy are included in the state-of-the-art. Up until now, we have received nearly forty Field Trial type I responses which gives us essential user feedback on the database and the toolkit with tools and instruments in the field of mental health promotion from practice. Overall, the results are very positive with regard to the toolkit and database and they have proved to be very useful with regard to making improvement. This feedback formed the basis for a ProMenPol workshop where key elements for the improvement of the homepage and the database were discussed. An amended webpage and database is now in development and will be available by the early Summer.

We plan to include user feedback throughout the lifetime of the project. This can be done through undertaking a Field Trial (type I), the so called Usabiity Test. After the summer of 2009, we will ask users to complete a second questionnaire in order to evaluate the improvements made in the database and the homepage.

In addition several organisations are currently implementing a specific mental health promotion tool in Type II Field Trials. They are doing mental health promotion in schools, workplaces and residences for older people. We will be happy to hear from other organisations who want to express their interest in implementing a mental health promotion tool by filling in the Expression of Interest Form. All practitioners who already have expressed their interest are welcome to announce their plans giving us a summary of their intention. Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Red Cross will provide you with the necessary information.

Furthermore we already have five organisations who have reported to the ProMenPol project about their previous implementation experiences. These Field Trial Type III responses come from four workplaces and one school. They reported to us that their mental health promotion project has been “(very) good” and several helpful factors supported the implementation process such as supportive management and organisation and also supportive staff. Nevertheless several organisations reported barriers and constraints which led to changes during the implementation process. Most of them reached the objectives of the mental health promotion action and they were happy with the performance of the mental health promotion tools that they used.

In addition practitioners have learned a lot from the implementation practice and they have identified important opportunities for mental health promotion in the future, such as the development of fruitful collaborations, support and health gains. They also recognise that persistent obstacles can shorten the usefulness of mental health interventions. Our initial analysis reveals that practitioners wish for an improvement in existing MHP programs, more education and training opportunities, better communicated evidence and discussion groups for policy.

These first results show that good policy recommendations need more knowledge and experience gained from practice. We hope that ProMenPol can motivate additional practice organisations to give us insights into their experiences of implementing mental health tools during the rest of the project. Please tell us if you already have implemented a mental health promotion tool in practice. You can do so by contacting us.

The 3rd Annual ProMenPol Conference

The 3rd Annual ProMenPol Conference will take place on October 15th to 16th 2009 in Berlin at the offices of the Federal Institute for Occupational Health and Safety.

At the last annual conference, lessons learned from practice will be the main focus of the agenda. ProMenPol will present results from the Mental Health Promotion Field Trials in general and in particular a good-practice example from each of the ProMenPol settings (education, workplace, and older people’s residences). The presentations will form the basis for discussing the advantages and disadvantages of evidence-based and good-practice results as well as its perception in the sphere of policy, practice and research. To support policy through practice, the conference will address both policy makers and practitioners in order to foster information exchange.

The project will also will present latest developments concerning its classification system for mental health promotion tools and at that point newly launched ProMenPol toolkit.

Invitations will be sent out in the first part of July. If you wish to take part or find out more about the conference, contact Rena Hohenstein from BAuA

European Commission’s Funding Opportunities in Health: Call 2009

On 27 February 2009, the European Commission adopted the Work Plan for 2009 for the implementation of the second programme of Community action in the field of health. The Work Plan was followed by the publication of the calls for proposals that present new funding opportunities for European organisations active in the area of public health.

The EAHC published calls for proposals for projects, operating grants, conferences and joint actions. The total budget available for the execution of the 2009 Work Plan is about 48.2 million euro. All proposals should address important problems in the European public health, including mental health related issues, and be in line with the Commission's priorities expressed in the Work Plan.

The deadline for the submission of proposals is 20 May 2009. For more information, visit the website of the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers.

The Future of ProMenPol

We are coming to the stage of the project when we must consider what will happen when the project finishes in December 2009. Feedback from various sources to date indicates that many of you would like to see the project continue in some form – it is our task to consider how that might be achieved.

In this issue we propose two ways in which this might be done. The first concerns setting up a Mental Health Promotion Network while the second (and these are not exclusive options) involves setting up an online journal.

In the print version of this Newsletter you will find a questionnaire with a number of questions which address these issues. We would be grateful if you could complete and save this questionnaire and then send it by e-mail to: Richard Wynne of the Work Research Centre.

Download Newsletter No.: 8

Newsletter Issue No. 7

Tilia Bousios — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

The 2nd ProMenPol Policy Workshop

Each year ProMenPol runs a half-day policy workshop in Brussels that follows the Annual Practitioners Conference. The 2008 Policy Workshop is the second of three annual forums which will be run during the lifetime of the project. The workshop took place on the 11th of December 2008 in the premises of KoWi, the EU Liaison Office of German Research Organisations.

The aim of the second ProMenPol policy workshop was to bring to the attention of policy makers the issues raised by practitioners in the Annual Conference held in Berlin during the summer. In Berlin, participants had been introduced to the European Mental Health Pact (EMHP) and asked to raise issues that they would like to be addressed during the second ProMenPol policy workshop.

The policy workshop heard from a number of key speakers who provided a state of the art overview of mental health policy issues within Europe. Guest speakers included Dr. David Gold who was responsible for developing and disseminating the SOLVE programme during his time with the International Labour Organisation, Jurgen Scheftlein, from DG Health and Consumer Protection, and Gregor Henderson who has been assisting a number of national governments to frame their mental health policies.

The views of the participants of the Annual Conference were presented to the workshop by Dr. Richard Wynne (Work Research Centre), Merike Sisask (ERSI) and Prof. Eija Stengard (STAKES). A description of work in progress in the ProMenPol project was provided by Katrin Zardo (BAuA).
The workshop was chaired by Dr. Karl Kuhn (BAuA) who also co-moderated the discussion with Dr. Richard Wynne.

The presentations made at the workshop are now available.

Main Points from the Discussion

The discussions that took place at the workshop ranged widely, but there were two main themes that emerged:

The role of ProMenPol in the context of the Mental Health Pact (see: http://www.ec-mental-health-process.net for more information)
The nature of supports that practitioners need to improve their practice

ProMenPol and the Mental Health Pact

There are a number of obvious ways in which ProMenPol can contribute to the development of the Mental Health Pact. These include:

Given the fact that the ProMenPol website attracts more than 40,000 visitors per month and has almost 500 members, it can help to promote and disseminate the Mental Health Pact amongst its membership and visitors to the site
The ProMenPol project covers three of the five major areas for action of the pact – schools, workplaces and older people’s residences. In collecting examples of good practice and conducting field trials in each of these settings, it can offer a wealth of experience to all who are interested in promoting the pact
The ProMenPol aim of bringing policy makers and practitioners closer together provides an obvious means of boosting communications about the pact, sharing ideas and learning from initiatives

There are many difficulties facing the implementation of the Pact. Amongst these is the issue of engaging with stakeholders in each of the settings of interest. There is a need to engage with ‘early adopters’ of mental health promotion if it is to be successful. ProMenPol, through the package of services that it offers and the field trials that it runs offers significant possibilities in this regard.

It was generally agreed that the ProMenPol approach was practical and applied. The next challenge was to make it more relevant to policy makers by providing information about what can be achieved, in what specific areas of policy, based on what evidence. The ProMenPol approach has the potential to bring policy makers in contact with skilled practitioners and by this means to deliver more effective policy formation. Effectively, the ProMenPol partners need to consider how they can place people at the centre of the EMHP and more specifically contribute to the five EMHP thematic events.

ProMenPol and Supports for Practitioners

There were a number of suggestions concerning improvements that might be made to the ProMenPol services that would enhance their effectiveness. These included:

Providing information about whether tools in the database needed training to be used
Providing clearer information about the criteria for inclusion of tools that have been included in the database and toolkit
The website should include descriptions of good practice, especially in relation to practitioners’ usage of tools within the database
The website should provide users with the opportunity to provide feedback about their experience of tool usage
It was suggested that ProMenPol should emphasise more worthwhile tools and particularly those which provide basic strategies and which have a broad scope in each setting.
It was pointed out that even if a practitioner has mental health promotion tools at hand there is no guarantee that they will be implemented. More substantives assistance is required above and beyond the availability of tools. ‘Hand holding’ and support are needed.
The issue of transition was raised. Transitions are developmental points at which mental health issues often arise, e.g. transition from school to work or from work to retirement. This is a process that is not well addressed by the separation of issues into the three areas of the ProMenPol project nor is it dealt with well in the five thematic seminars organised under the auspices of the EMHP. The overlaps between school, the workplace and older people need to be addressed. Transition tools are included in the ProMenPol database but they are not highlighted as such. This could be resolved by adapting the database.

Evaluating the ProMenPol Database

At present, there are almost 500 people registered as members of the ProMenPol website. Each of these people receives the newsletter from the project and they are also entitled to upload tools on to the ProMenPol database.

Part of the remaining work on the project is concerned with redesigning the ProMenPol database and toolkit so that it is less complex and more usable for practitioners. Given that these are new and innovative products, the first version of them were designed to cover all eventualities, in the full knowledge that the structures, search facilities and the coding systems used were over inclusive. Given that there is now a body of experience of using the database and toolbox over the past 12 months or so amongst both project team members and registered project members, it is now time to evaluate their experience of using these products.

In order to achieve this end, the ProMenPol project has asked its external evaluator, Mr. John Griffiths from a Welsh company called Work2Health to undertake a survey of the experiences of the registered members during the months of January. This is a short survey, which will focus on the usability of the database and tools and the website in general, and will also provide respondents with the opportunity to suggest improvements to them.
You will receive an e-mail from John over the coming days together with a questionnaire. We would ask you to complete a questionnaire and return it to John at the e-mail address that will be provided before the end of January. The information that you provide will be invaluable in supporting our efforts to improve the database and toolkit and the entire website.

Download Newsletter No.: 7

Newsletter Issue No. 6

Tilia Bousios — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:59:00 GMT

The 2nd ProMenPol Policy Workshop

Each year ProMenPol runs a half-day policy workshop in Brussels that follows the Annual Practitioners Conference. This years Policy Workshop is the second of three annual forums which will be run during the lifetime of the project. It aims to inform policy makers about the results of the Practitioners Conference, which was successfully completed in Berlin on 19th and 20th of June 2008, and about the progress of ProMenPol. We will also discuss the future of the database of mental health promotion tools. Furthermore, we will explore ways in which the mental health promotion agenda can be pushed forward and the consequences of the recently launched European Mental Health Pact. It is intended that the workshop will also act as a forum between National and European policy makers and practitioners representatives so that communication about the differing needs of these groups can be enhanced. The workshop allows for mutual exchange of information concerning positive mental health between experts and for timely feedback to those responsible for designing services and policies.

The annual ProMenPol Policy Workshop will take place on the 11th of December 2008 from 11am to 3pm in Brussels in the premises of KoWi, the EU Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations. For further information, please have refer to the ProMenPol website. This policy workshop is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please contact Rena Hohenstein.

Field Trial Progress

We are very pleased that 62 organisations all over Europe have already expressed their interest in conducting a ProMenPol Field Trial. The majority of these organisations will contribute to the ProMenPol project by undertaking a usability test of the online toolkit (Field Trial Type I). But there are also a reasonable number of other field trials types, i.e. implementing a mental health promotion and protection tool in practice (Field Trial Type II) and reporting on a tool which is already in use by the organisation (Field Trial Type III).

Because the project will amend the online database and the toolkit early by next year many usability tests already reached our offices. Therefore we want to take the opportunity to thank all respondents who have completed a field trial.

From the first Field Trial Type I responses we already have some indication that the online toolkit is of great use for practitioners. Nevertheless, practitioners have also reported some possibilities to improve it. This information is an essential source for us in improving the database and toolkit and it will give us the ability to better fit these ProMenPol tools to the practical needs of users.

In addition, we have been informed that Field Trial Types II and III are already preparing their mental health promotion activities and contributions to the ProMenPol project. We have already received information from a number of field trial sites and we expect that the responses will increase in the coming weeks.

Field Trials Type II and III can undertake their actions during 2009 and ProMenPol will collect the documentation and responses from these as late as September 2009. So there is plenty of time to register your interest in taking part in one of these filed trials.

For Type II Field Trials you first have to give a short description of the project that you propose to undertake and you will then be asked to fill in an ethics questionnaire which will be reviewed by the ProMenPol ethical sub-committee. After our OK you can start with the implementation of the tool. For Type III Field Trials it is only necessary to give us retrospective feedback of your finished mental health promotion action.

If you have not expressed your interest in undertaking a Field Trial yet, we are very happy to receive further expressions of interest. If you are interested in taking part please fill in the online available expression of interest form and send an e-mail to Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Red Cross. For more detailed information about field trials please contact us or visit our homepage but we the entire ProMenPol team is also happy to answer your questions.

If you wish to undertake a field trial, you will receive support from the Project Team in relation to the implementation of a project and also in relation to its evaluation. For more information, e-mail Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Viennese Red Cross and ask for the “Expression of Interest” Form. For more detailed information about the field trials please visit our homepage. There is also a marketing flyer available.

Download Newsletter No.: 6

Newsletter Issue No. 5

Tilia Bousios — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:47:00 GMT

ProMenPol Partners at the High Level Conference on Mental Health and Well-Being, Brussels, 13 June 2008

The EU took a step forward in developing community level action on mental health and well-being with the EU Pact for Mental Health and Well-being, officially launched at the EU High-Level Conference Together for Mental Health and Well- being on 13 June 2008 in Brussels. This follows on from the EU Green Paper on mental health published in 2005.

The conference was hosted by Health Commissioner Androulla Vassilliou on behalf of the European Commission, in collaboration with the Slovenian Presidency and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Ministers, experts, researchers, European NGOs and other stakeholders came together and agreed on future joint actions to improve mental health in Europe. The Pact is a call for partnership in action. The Pact recognises the challenges in addressing mental health and suggests pooling knowledge from across the EU in order to develop commonly supported recommendations for actions in five key areas:

prevention of suicide and depression
mental health in youth and education
mental health in workplace settings
mental health in older people
combating stigma and social exclusion

The Pact expresses the determination of Member States and stakeholders from sectors such as health, education, workplace, social affairs and civil society to engage in long-term work of exchange and cooperation on mental health and well-being in the EU. Speaking at the launch, Commissioner Vassilliou said: “Today, we in Europe have raised our voices and spoken out about the devastating effect that mental illness has on society. This Pact is a symbol of our determination in Europe to take up the challenge and deliver action in our different areas of responsibility and across the health, education and labour sectors. We need to act in partnership because mental health concerns us all."

The Pact has been carefully prepared over the last six months, drawing on the Green Paper consultations. A series of consensus papers has been produced by the EC Mental Health Process consortium, in cooperation with member states, three policy areas within the European Commission and stakeholders from a range of sectors. The papers highlight the current data, policies and state of the art on the subject and will support the implementation of the Pact. A set of Policy Briefs and a Background Paper of key facts and example activities have also been produced to support the conference.

ProMenPol partners have been active in the preparation of the consensus papers and in the conference. Karl Kuhn and Richard Wynne were closely involved with the development of the workplace consensus paper; STAKES are partners in the EC Mental Health Process consortium and SUPPORT project; and Mental Health Europe took part in the development of the consensus papers on youth and education and on older people. The President of Mental Health Europe, Malgorzata Kmita spoke at the High level Conference on social exclusion and mental health. ProMenPol was referenced as an example of cross policy action in the Background Paper for the conference produced by the SUPPORT Project.

The Pact will be put into practice through a series of thematic conferences on each of the priorities during 2009-2010.

Details of the Conference, Pact and Consensus Papers can be found on the DG SANCO website.

To access the Background Paper and a database of over eighty EU funded mental health projects, contact the SUPPORT Project at www.supportproject.eu.

For more information on the activities that Mental Health Europe has undertaken around the Pact, please write to Mari Fresu, Health Policy Officer, at mari.fresu@mhe-sme.org.

The 2nd ProMenPol Conference

ProMenPol held its second annual conference in Berlin on June 19th and 20th 2008 with mental health promotion practitioners and other experts from ten European countries. The first day of the conference focused on supporting implementation of mental health promotion in the three settings of education, workplace and older people’s residences. The second day of the conference was devoted to the practitioners’ perspective on the implementation of policy objectives regarding the EU Pact for Mental Health and Well-Being.

The Conference was opened by Dr. Karl Kuhn (BAuA), followed by Katrin Zardo who provided the conference participants with a summary of ProMenPol’s activities to date and the aims of the 2008 Conference.

The thematic opening to the conference was given by Dr. Karl Kuhn (BAuA). In his presentation Dr. Kuhn laid out core principles of mental health promotion, especially highlighting the conception of positive mental health as well as power and resilience as key concepts of mental health promotion.

The keynote speech was given by Gregor Henderson, in his capacity as an independent consultant with long and wide experience in the field of mental health promotion and as the former Director of Scotland’s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being. His inspiring speech covered examples of good practice as well as strategies to obtain support for mental health promoting activities.

Dr. Donal McAnaney (Rehab) and Richard Wynne (WRC) then took up the baton and presented the ProMenPol database and toolkit which was followed by Tilia Boussios (Eworx) and Leonie Lynch (WRC), who provided a practical demonstration on how to find tools in the ProMenPol Database and gave an overview of tools included in the database and toolkit.

As the database/toolkit aims to be user-oriented, easy to implement and near to practice, Gert Lang and Tilia Boussios encouraged participants to help the ProMenPol team improve the toolkit by evaluating the toolkit using the ProMenPol Usability Questionnaire (Field Trial Type I). Additionally, Gert Lang (FRK) presented Field Trial Types II and III.

During the workshops, practitioners shared their experiences of and prospects for implementing MHP tools - these discussions proved to be lively and enlightening. Following on from the workshop reports, Dr. Donal McAnaney (Rehab) raised awareness of ethical issues in mental health promotion thereby concluding the first conference day.

The second day of the conference commenced with a presentation by Mary van Dievel (MHE) and Chris O’Sullivan (SUPPORT project) on the European Pact on Mental Health and Well-Being and its development process.

A more detailed insight on EU policy was provided by Dr. Airi Värnik (ERSI) - focusing on suicide prevention and mental health in youth and education, by Dr Richard Wynne (WRC) – focusing on mental health in workplace environments - and by Dr Eija Stengård (STAKES) - focusing on mental health for older people.

The presentations were followed by the second conference workshop Bottom up Policy Making - Empowering the Voice of the Practitioner where participants discussed possibilities to foster mental health promotion at EU-level in the future as well as highlighting important lessons from practice that are of interest to and can be used to influence policy makers.

The Second ProMenPol Conference turned out to be a resounding success, not only because of the great response to the Field Trials but also due to the qualitative and constructive practitioners’ feedback to the European Pact. This practitioners’ feedback will be carried forward to European policy makers at the Second ProMenPol Policy Workshop, which will take place in December 2008.

The presentations associated with the 2008 ProMenPol Conference are now available on the website, whereas a full conference report will be published shortly.

Recent Developments in ProMenPol

Numerous activities have been taking place in ProMenPol since the publication of the last newsletter. The ProMenPol Toolkit and Database are now fully functioning and can be accessed from the ProMenPol website. To date some 364 tools are available in the ProMenPol database of which 155 are associated with the education setting, 100 with the older peoples’ residences and 109 with the workplace settings. These tools are now available in five languages (English, German, Finnish, Estonian and Dutch).

The ProMenPol Toolkit is made up of a sub-set of the database tools. The tools in the Toolkit have been selected by the ProMenPol team as being the best available tools from the ProMenPol database. They are organised into a 4 step implementation process model (see below), which allows for easy identification of the target of the tools within the Toolkit. A more detailed description is provided on the ProMenPol website.

In addition to ProMenPol partners surveying tools, people and organisations from outside the project are encouraged to add tools to the database. This involves becoming a registered user of the project website and then going to the toolkit/database area to enter the details of your mental health promotion tool. Instructions on how to complete the pro-formas for tool descriptions are provided.

Field Trials and Registration for Participation

Following the completion of the 2nd ProMenPol Conference, the ProMenPol field trials have begun. 51 organisations from ten different countries and from various settings have stated their interest in conducting a field trial. 31 of the organisations that have expressed an interest originate from the workplace setting, eleven from schools and eight from the setting for older people. ProMenPol will support the field trial participants by means of a manual, e-forums, ethics vision & questionnaire, ProMenPol ethical advice, the project contact partners, a summary form, the ProMenPol website, database & toolkit and of course via the ProMenPol-Network.

In the meantime interested organisations can express their interest in undertaking a field trial. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Viennese Red Cross (gert.lang@w.redcross.or.at) and ask for the “expression of interest”-form. For more detailed information about the field trials please visit our homepage. There is also a marketing flyer available.

Download Newsletter No. 5

Newsletter Issue No. 4

Evi Kostakou — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:56:00 GMT

Recent Developments in ProMenPol

Numerous activities are going on within ProMenPol these past few weeks: The first version of the database is online and it is growing day by day. At the same time more and more practitioners have announced interest in taking part in one of the different field trial types. There have also been significant developments at EU level. As a follow-up to the Green Paper on Improving the Mental Health of the Population of 2005, the Commission intends to organize on 13 June 2008 in Brussels an EU-high level conference on mental health, with the presence of both Commissioner Kyprianou and the President of the European Commission, Dr José Manuel Barroso. A so-called European Pact for Mental Health is planned for launch at this conference. The pact would be an intersectoral Declaration, expressing the willingness of members to work together in addressing mental health issues, based on a set of key principles for action. Pact members would also commit to contributing to the implementation of the Pact through providing input to a series of thematic conferences, which would develop plans for further action and would contribute to a Commission Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Mental Health (2009). The process would focus on four priority themes: prevention of suicide, mental health in youth and education, mental health in workplace environments, older people. Furthermore, certain horizontal priorities would be applied, among those: promotion of mental wellbeing and improving the knowledge base and availability of data.

Further details about the event will be made available in due time at: ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/mental/mental_health_en.htm

Members of the ProMenPol consortium are in close contact with the Commission and actively involved in the preparatory work of this high level event. At the upcoming ProMenPol conference which will take place only a few days later those policy issues will also be discussed. However, the focal point of the next ProMenPol conference will be on the database and the field trials. More detailed information is given in the according articles below.

Field Trials and Registering for Participation

After the 2nd ProMenPol Conference the piloting phase in the ProMenPol context will start officially. Already a number of organisations from various fields already have expressed their interest to take part in the field trials. If you also want to improve your service by means of mental health promotion, you can register to undertake a field trial.

Practitioners and organisations from the school, workplace or residences for older people settings have the unique possibility to run a ProMenPol field trial. Depending on the needs of the practitioners, ProMenPol offers several possibilities for field trials:

Field trial Type I: is a usability-test of the online database and toolbox of mental health promotion and protection instruments. The questionnaire will ask users – who have tested the toolboxes – about toolset’s utility, functionality and practicality for the organisation.
Field trials Type II: will document the experiences of implementing one of the tools practitioners have chosen from the toolset of mental health promotion instruments.
Because some organisations already have implemented such a tool, field trial Type III: is a standardised report on a tool which is already in use by the organisation in the course of an existing initiative. In addition we will ask them to report on its utility and practicality too.

Under the lead of the Research Institute of the Viennese Red Cross (FRK) the ProMenPol partnership is now preparing questionnaires and documentation for all field trial types.

For more detailed information about field trials please visit our homepage. There is also a marketing flyer available on that issue.

The ProMenPol Database and Toolkit - Accessing and Entering Tools

The major development in ProMenPol in recent months has been the creation of a database of tools for mental health promotion. These tools are targeted at the three settings of interest – schools, workplaces and older peoples’ residences. The database currently contains more than 200 tools in 3 languages – English, German and Finnish, though the number of languages will be increased in the near future.

These tools have been identified and described by the ProMenPol project team, but interested people from outside of the project also have the opportunity to add tools to the database. This involves becoming a registered user of the project website and then going to the toolkit area of the website to enter the details of your mental health promotion tool. Instructions on how to complete the pro-formas for tool descriptions are provided

An important feature of the tools database is that it is searchable in multiple languages. For example, if you are searching in English, the results of your search will produce tools in any of the languages in which tools are available. Similarly, a search in German or Finnish will produce results in all languages.

Each tool in the database has a standard set of descriptors which can be seen in the screen print below:

In addition, you will be asked to describe the tool in terms of three distinct frameworks – a core set of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF), the International Classification of Disease version 10 and a Classification of health promotion actions that has been drawn up by the project team. This classification data is used for purposes of enhancing the searches that can me made on the database.

When your tool has been entered on the website it is then entered in a buffer where it is assessed by a member of the project team in order to ensure that the details of the tool have been entered correctly.<

The database of tools will be further developed over the next few months in order to produce the ProMenPol Toolkit. This will consist of a set of toolkits targeted at each of the three settings of interest to the project and will contain a recommended set of tools that will enable the user to undertake the full range of mental health promotion processes in their own organisation. It is expected that the first version of the ProMenPol Toolkit will be available by the end of May 2008.

A second version of the Toolkit will be produced before the end of the project in 2009. This will be an amended and enhanced version which will have been updated on the basis of feedback from the Field Trials which will run from June 2008 to September 2009.

The 2nd ProMenPol Conference

The next ProMenPol conference will take place on June 19^th- 20^th in Berlin at the offices of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA).

This invitation only conference is especially aimed at mental health promotion practitioners who wish to undertake a ProMenPol field trial. The first version of the toolkit will be presented and participants will receive training on the effective implementation of tools. A second focus of the conference will be laid on policy issues. In this context ProMenPol is particularly interested on the practitioner’s perspective on the implementation of policy objectives. Where possible, topics will be discussed in interactive workshops.

Invitations will be sent out in the first part of April. If you wish to take part or find out more about the Conference, contact Katrin Zardo from BAUA.

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Newsletter Issue No. 3

Tilia Bousios — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:10:00 GMT

Recent Developments in ProMenPol

By the end of its first year, ProMenPol has succeeded in gathering a community of interested stakeholders willing to engage actively in the field of positive mental
health promotion.

At its first conference in October, 56 practitioners from the schools, workplace and older people’s settings met to look into the theoretical background of the ProMenPol tools database. The lively and fruitful discussions that took place there provided the ProMenPol team with interesting feedback and possibilities of improvement.

In the meantime these recommendations have been compiled and evaluated, which has resulted in the update, amalgamation and finalisation of the ICF and MHP Codes to be used for each setting. Version 1 of the database will be available for practitioners at the beginning of February 2008.

The official start for (most) field trials is thought to happen at the next ProMenPol conference which will take place on June 19th - 20th in Berlin. There participants will be trained for the successful planning and implementation of their mental health promotion project.

More information about participating in field trials is now available in the section “field trials” on our website.

Last but not least ProMenPol has been in contact with national and European policy makers discussing ways of integrating mental health into policies at Community and national level. More information about the actions that took place in this field is given in the articles below.

The ProMenPol Policy Workshop

ProMenPol held its first annual policy workshop in Brussels with representatives from the Commission and National Agencies on November 28th 2007. Representatives were present from DG Employment, Research, Sanco and Education.

The aim of the workshop was to inform participants about the project in general and in particular to inform them about the unique approach that ProMenPol is developing to effective communications between policy makers and practitioners.

This approach comes from within the action research tradition. It proposes the use of new documentation procedures by practitioners whereby good practice in mental health promotion is documented and assessed by practitioners themselves and that this information is passed on to policy makers in a timely and digestible way. It does not seek to overturn the traditional role of scientific research in acting as an intermediary between policy and practice - rather it seeks to provide information that is reliable and targeted towards the needs of policy makers.

The ProMenPol Approach

The workshop also undertook extensive discussions on the issues on identifying appropriate policy makers and on the types of information that policy makers need to improve policy making. A distinction was drawn between policy makers, policy administrators and policy influencers. Policy makers and influencers include people who make decisions about what a policy should be and how it should be drawn up, e.g. politicians, senior civil servants. Policy influencers include people who have an interest in a policy area such as social partners and representative groups. Policy administrators generally come from the civil service.

Different types of information are needed to target these groups as are different communication strategies. ProMenPol is committed to developing strategies for each of these groups over the coming months in order to ensure that we can make maximum impact on mental health policy in the future.

ProMenPol at the European Parliament

Mental Health Europe, John Bowis MEP and ProMenPol together for the promotion of mental well-being in employment On 5 December 2007, Mental Health Europe (MHE) and John Bowis MEP (EPP-ED Group) hosted a lunch debate on “Equal Chance, Equal Respect: Promoting Mental Health and Well-being in Employment”.

The debate focused on a key cross-cutting issue impacting on social and health policies in the EU, namely the mental well-being of people in employment. In Europe, one in five people at work suffers from a high level of stress at work, and stress related problems are either the leading or the second most common cause of absence from work. Stressors at work increase the risk of anxiety, depression and burn out. The debate emphasised how the provision of training and social support at work, good work design and organisation and the development of empowerment can lead to improvements in competence, coping strategies, job satisfaction, work capacity and reduced stress.

Richard Wynne, Director of the Work Research Centre (Ireland) and expert partner in the ProMenPol research project, was one of the key speakers. He highlighted some well known workplace factors that can promote good mental health and the two main approaches to promoting mental health in the workplace. Dr. Wynne concluded by stressing the need to raise awareness of the possibilities of the workplace for mental heath promotion, encourage the practice of mental heath promotion at the workplace and provide support for workplaces wishing to undertake mental heath promotion. He mentioned the contribution of the ProMenPol project to meeting this need.

The debate fed into the Lisbon strategy 2008-2010 and the EU Health Strategy 2008-2013. The Lisbon strategy for the economic and social renewal of Europe highlights the need for both more and better jobs, and for improved social inclusion and gender equality. The Commission’s Health Strategy White Paper recognises that mental health problems are a major cause of work absenteeism and early retirement, thereby causing immense economic losses and social burdens.

Encouraging and supporting the creation of healthy companies and workplaces, which include safe working environments and mentally healthy working practices,can help promoting mental well-being and addressing psychosocial risk factors at the workplace.
For more information: the MHE Secretariat, email info@mhe-sme.org, Tel +32 2 280 04 68.

The ProMenPol Brochure is Now Available in German

For all our German Colleagues the German Version of the ProMenPol Brochure is now available.
You can download this e-brochure.

A French Version of the e-Brochure will be available shortly so watch this space.

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Newsletter Issue No. 2

Tilia Bousios — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:43:00 GMT

The New ProMenPol Website is Now Available

The new improved ProMenPol website www.mentalhealthpromotion.net is now up and running. The new website aims to keep users updated with the latest developments within the ProMenPol Project in addition to latest news and publications in the area of Mental Health Promotion.

The Membership Service is a free service that enables Members to upload documents, projects, links and announcements on to various parts of the ProMenPol website in addition to receiving the PROMENPOL Newsletter. Members can upload their documents or announcements in the following areas of the site:

Projects (under the Resource Tab);
Links (under the Resource Tab);
Policy Documents (under the Resource Tab);
Bibliography (under the Resource Tab) ; and
Events

New additions to the website such as the ProMenPol Database and the Discussion Forums will gradually appear on the website in the next few months.

We look forward therefore to all ProMenPol Members posting information to the new website.

The ProMenPol E-Brochure is Now Available in Italian

For all our Italian Colleagues the Italian Version of the ProMenPol Brochure is now available. You can download this e-brochure here. A French Version of the e-Brochure will be available shortly so watch this space.

The ProMenPol Conference

Location: Berlin
Start Date: 11/10/2007
End Date: 12/10/2007

The ProMenPol project (funded by the EU) aims to increase knowledge and improve practice in promoting and protecting mental health in the three settings of schools, workplaces and residential homes for older people. It will do so by making available, in a structured way, information on research, current policies, best practice, prevention measures and impact of measures.

In the first year of this 3 year project, the main aim is to build a theoretical framework which can be used to map and repackage existing research and practice within the field of mental health and wellbeing so that it can be easily accessed and used by practitioners. On this basis existing tools (i.e. measures and actions for managing mental health promotion) will be collected and packaged into three setting-specific toolkits that will be piloted at a later stage.

Ultimately outcomes of ProMenPol can help European and national policy makers to implement a mental health strategy throughout Europe.

ProMenPol will hold the first of its three annual conferences in Berlin on October 11th and 12th 2007. The main issue to be addressed at the ProMenPol conference is to gain agreement between the project actors and outside interested parties on the conceptual framework for the project. It also aims to widely disseminate information concerning positive mental health and to amend it on the basis of the feedback obtained at the conference.

Given the limited number of places available, this conference is an invitation only conference. So far, almost 50 people have registered to attend the conference. Regardless, the results of the conference will be posted on the ProMenPol Website. Click here for more information about the conference.

The ProMenPol Database

A quick search of the Internet using the term ‘mental health promotion tools’ yields literally millions of hits. For the prospective mental health promoter, this volume of tools is impossible to deal with. So, ProMenPol is producing a database of mental health promotion tools that can be used in the settings of schools, workplaces and Older People’s Residences.

ProMenPol has developed a search strategy which allows for the identification of tools that are of high quality and which are backed up by evaluation evidence. These are being collected into the ProMenPol database which will be made available soon on the project website.

In addition, ProMenPol has developed a categorisation of the tools based on the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning and on the main health promotion approaches. This allows for tools to be searched for using a multitude of search terms and the identification of tools according to their full range of uses.

The first version of the database will have in excess of 100 tools from the 3 settings and this will be updated and enlarged as the project proceeds.

For more information follow developments on the website.

The ProMenPol Policy Workshop

Location: Brussels
Start Date: 28/11/2007

ProMenPol will run a half day policy workshop in Brussels at the end of November that is targeted at policy makers at EU and national level. This workshop aims to inform policy makers of the progress of ProMenPol and to explore ways in which the mental health promotion agenda can be pushed forward.

It is intended that the workshop will also act as a forum between policy makers and practitioners so that communications about the differing needs of these two groups can be enhanced.

This forum is the first of three annual forums which will be run during the lifetime of the project. Participation is by invitation only, but if you have specific interest in mental health and wellbeing policy and would like to attend, please contact Katrin Zardo at: zardo.katrin@baua.bund.de

Field Trials in ProMenPol

A major part of the work of ProMenPol is to organise field trials of tools for mental health promotion within the three settings of interest – schools, workplaces and older people’s residences. It is anticipated that professionals operating in these three settings will identify tools of interest to them and that they will implement them within the lifetime of the project and provide feedback to the project and other interested parties on the outcome of their initiatives. Alternatively, ProMenPol is also looking to identify existing initiatives in mental health promotion that are already in train, and which would be willing to provide information to the project on their usage of mental health promotion tools.

The ProMenPol project team will provide a range of supports to the field trials. This will include the development of a field trial protocol, the supply of evaluation instruments and the provision of advice to initiatives with regard to running field trials and reporting on them. In addition, the project will set up three forums on the three settings of interest, where project team members and field trial implementors can communicate.

ProMenPol is running a set of three annual conferences for people who will be involved in the field trials. These will act as an additional support to people who are implementing field trials and will also provide a basis for mutual support. These conferences will also provide the opportunity to people from the field trials to meet with and communicate with professionals from the policy arena, thereby giving them the chance to influence policy makers about what works in the field of mental health promotion. Field trials are due to commence in early 2008. If you are interested in taking part in this work, please contact Gert Lang at: Gert.Lang@w.roteskreuz.at.

About the Project

The project runs from January 2007 - December 2009 and is being led by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - BAUA.

A complete listing of Project Partners and contact points is presented here.

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Newsletter Issue No. 1

Tilia Bousios — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:48:00 GMT

New Project on Mental Health Promotion Begins

ProMenPol is a new project aiming to support the policy maker and the practitioner in the area of mental health promotion and protection (MHPP). Funded under the EU’s ‘Support to Policy’ programme, the project will address MHPP for 3 target groups – school going children and adolescents, people in the workplace and people who are resident in older people’s homes.

The incidence of mental distress and disease is increasing rapidly throughout Europe - mental health problems impact on about a quarter of the population at some time in their lives and are being experienced by 10% of adults regardless of culture or country at any point in time.

Mental health conditions can be catastrophic for individuals and families in health and social terms – it increases risks of persistent poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability to stigma and discrimination. The burden on society is equally severe in terms of lost productivity and treatment costs.

PROMENPOL’s Objectives

PROMENPOL sets out to identify useful and practical approaches to MHPP. It will develop a multidimensional approach to identifying and classifying effective tools for promoting mental health across the lifespan in the settings of schools, workplaces and older peoples’ residential homes. PROMENPOL will:

Identify and Re-Package tools for mental health promotion and protection within three contexts - schools, the workplace and residences for older people.
Produce a systematic and easily navigated knowledge management system populated with useful information, key references and important web links.
Construct a set of three mental health toolkits tailored to the life span stage of target users and predominant context within which they live their lives i.e. school, work and residences for older people.
Organise a series of pilot implementation projects to evaluate and review the knowledge base and toolkits.
Produce a set of multi-sectoral policy principles designed to promote and support more proactive and targeted mental health initiatives in each of the sectors.
Create sustainable collaboration between the key actors in the project to carry forward the results into the later stages of the project and beyond.

The Target Audience

PROMENPOL targets a range of stakeholders in the mental health protection and promotion arena including:

Policy Makers;
Practitioners;
Researchers;
NGOs representing Mental Health, Public Health, Schools and Older Persons issues; and
Social Partners.

The project has developed a multi-stranded strategy to support the widespread dissemination of information, packaging of the information and the provision of support to both policy making and practice.

About the Project

The project runs from January 2007 - December 2009 and is being led by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - BAUA.

A complete listing of Project Partners and contact points is presented here.

Download the Newsletter No. 1 - 211 Kb