Co-ordination of capacity building, fight against discrimination and awareness raising in the mental health field: a European Challenge! (2004-2006)
Supported by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Action Programme to combat Discrimination
Aims of the project:
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Reinforce capacity building of our member organisations, especially in the new EU Members States, and involve them in the EU policy making process;
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Providing accessible comprehensive information to our members regarding EU legislation on non-discrimination, the European Year of People with Disabilities and EU Social Inclusion Policy and support them to promote European actions at the national level;
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Raise awareness and fight against discrimination of people with mental health problems;
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Encourage our members to exchange information and collaborate with other European NGOs;
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Ensure that the views of our member organisations are expressed at the European level.
Areas of action:
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European Non Discrimination Policy
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EU Disability Policies
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EU Social Inclusion Policies
Specific objectives:
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To organise training sessions for our members from the new Member States;
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To organise visits to provide exchange of experience and knowledge, and encourage support from our member organisations by organising twinning projects;
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To prepare information packs with relevant information about the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations policies, and about the developments in the fields of mental health and human rights;
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To build the capacity of our member organisation to set up Mental Health Associations in the new Member States.
Persons with mental health problems, their families and carers, activists for mental health, professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, managers and local and national policy makers) are involved in this work.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The seminar European policies towards the integration of people with mental health problems (4 February 2005, Brussels)
Invited speakers from the European Commission and the European Parliament made presentations on issues like: the role of the European Parliament in the development of European policies in the field of mental health; the global EU strategy regarding disability issues and discrimination in the field of disability; the EU social inclusion process and the EUmental health policy. Representatives of various MHE member organisations, as well as other interested parties, took part in this seminar.
Full report of the seminar: Report on seminar EU Policies 04.02.05.pdf
The seminar "The WHO Declaration and Action Plan on Mental Health: The Way Forward" (3 June 2005, Brussels)
The seminar was addressed to MHE member organisations and European NGOs active in the field of mental health and aimed to explain the content and objectives of the WHO Declaration and Action Plan - adopted in January 2005 in Helsinki at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Mental health - and to explore ways in which mental health NGOs can get involved in the putting forward and implementing the Action Plan in their countries.
Full report of the seminar: Report MHE Seminar. WHO Action Plan 03.06.05.pdf
Useful links:
European Commission's anti-discrimination website
Information Campaign's "For Diversity-Against Discrimination" website
On-line anti-discrimination database
Info:
Mental Health Europe, Boulevard Clovis 7, B-1000 Brussels
Tel : + 32 2 280 04 68 - Fax : + 32 2 280 16 04
e-mail : info@mhe-sme.org
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