On 5 December Mental Health Europe (MHE) and John Bowis MEP (EPP-ED Group) will host a lunch debate on "Equal Chance, Equal Respect: Promoting Mental Health and Well-being in Employment" at the European parliament in Brussels.

The debate will focus on a key cross-cutting issue impacting on social and health policies in the EU, namely the mental well-being in employment. In Europe, one in five people at work suffers from a high level of stress at work, the second most common health symptom. Stressors at work increase the risk of anxiety, depression and burn out.

The event is being currently broadcasted on the EPP-ED Group TV news.
To watch the video visit: http://www.epp-ed.eu/VOD/

It has also been publicised by the EPP-ED Press Office.
To read the press Release: the EPP-ED website,
http://www.epp-ed.eu/Press/showpr.asp?PRControlDocTypeID=1&PRControlID=6779&PRContentID=11906&PRContentLG=en

For further information: contact the Mental Health Europe secretariat, E-mail info@mhe-sme.org, Tel +32 2 280 04 68

Mental Health Europe and the London School of Economics and Political Science are organising a Mental Health Economics European Network, Phase II (MHEEN II) Symposium on 13 December 2007 in Brussels. The event is sponsored by the European Commission, Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection.

This symposium will present findings and analysis from Phase II of the Mental Health Economics European Network. Speakers will include members from the Network on current research findings.

To register, please send an E-mail to Pssru@lse.ac.uk.

For further information about the project, and more particularly on the outcomes of the last MHEEN II Seminar, held in London on 27 September 2007, visit the MHEEN website: www.mheen.org

The programme for the MHE conference to be held in Aalborg (Denmark), from 7-9 August 2007 was further discussed during a teleconference on 22 November.

The 2nd announcement with Call for contributions will be available in January and will be widely disseminated.
MHE members and other interested organisations and people are kindly invited to already now send in their proposals for the conference workshops!

For more information: the MHE Secretariat, E-mail info@mhe-sme.org, Tel +32 2 280 04 68

At the beginning of November Mental Health Europe invited its members to engage together with MHE in a reporting activity on the implementation of the European Social Charter. The initiative is led by the Council of Europe (CoE) European Social Charter and Social Policies Grouping.

The reporting activity consists in checking whether the national reports sent by the States Parties of the European Social Charter (ESC) – that is to say the States that ratified the Charter - to the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), the body responsible for monitoring compliance in the States Parties to the ESC, reflect the situation on the ground.

The reports are one of the means available to NGOs for monitoring the honouring of commitments entered into by the countries that had signed the European Social Charter.

MHE strongly believes that this activity represents an opportunity to denounce the existing violations of the rights of people with mental health problems plus a powerful mean to put pressure on national governments.

The participating members will be in charge of carefully reading the reports, assessing the situation on the ground and report on it. All their comments will then be collected by MHE, assembled in a single document and sent to the President of the European Social Charter and Social Policies Grouping before the end of January 2008.

Members from Austria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and UK have already joined but members from other EU countries willing to participate are still welcome.

The activity also received the support of the European Coalition for Community Living (ECCL).
On 27 November, Fanny Muller presented the activity to the members of the Social Platform FRAND (Fundamental rights and Discrimination) Working Group.

If you have any questions about this initiative and if you are willing to engage in the reporting activity, please contact Fanny Muller, Information Officer and Coordinator of the MHE Committee on Mental Health and Human Rights: Email fmuller@mhe-sme.org, Tel +32 2 280 04 68, Fax +32 2 280 16 04.

For more information on the reporting activity and on the European Social Charter and Social Policies Grouping: the Council of Europe website,
http://www.coe.int/t/e/ngo/public/groupings/European_Social_Charter_&_Social_Policies/index.asp#TopOfPage

While good mental health can help people to be intellectually and emotionally fulfilled and integrated into social, educational and professional life, poor mental health can become both a cause and a consequence of social exclusion. Against this background MHE, together with project partners from 10 different EU Member States carried out the EU-funded project “Good Practices for Combating Social Exclusion of People with Mental Health Problems”.

The aim of the project was to raise awareness of the relationship between mental ill-health and social exclusion and to provide evidence and highlight the success of existing best practices that can contribute to tackling the inequalities that people with mental health problems encounter in access to health and social services, employment, education, training services, housing, transport, leisure activities as well as the protection of their civil and human rights.

One of the central outcomes of the project is its website (www.mentalhealth-socialinclusion.org), which includes an online database of good practices combating social exclusion of people with mental health problems.

Based on the project website and database of good practices combating social exclusion of people with mental health problems, MHE has now developed a publication in the form of a directory of all the collected good practices. The directory is intended to serve as a source of inspiration for anybody who wants to learn about small, local initiatives that help supporting the social inclusion of people with mental health problems. Moreover, the publication contains MHE’s conclusions and recommendations for policy and practice resulting from the final outcomes of the project.

The directory of good practices for combating social exclusion of people with mental health problems can be downloaded here:
http://www.mentalhealth-socialinclusion.org/publications.html

The directory has been published with the support of the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities – Unit E2 Inclusion, Social Policy aspects of Migration, Streamlining of Social Policies under the Community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion 2002-2006.

For further information please visit the website: www.mentalhealth-socialinclusion.org or contact: Sogol Noorani, Project Coordinator, E-mail sogol.noorani@mhe-sme.org, Tel +32 2 280 04 68.

The ProMenPol project (funded by the EU) aims to support the practices and policies of mental health promotion in the three settings of schools, workplaces and residential homes for older people. It will do so over the 2007-2009 period by:

• developing a database of mental health promotion tools;
• assisting practitioners in implementing such tools;
• providing research-based policy support.

Each year ProMenPol runs a practitioners conference that is followed by a policy workshop for national and European policy makers. This shall allow for mutual exchange of information concerning positive mental health between experts and for timely feedback to those responsible for designing services and policies.

The first annual conference was successfully completed in Berlin on 11-12 October 2007.

For more information on this event, you can read the Conference's report on the ProMenPol website: http://www.mentalhealthpromotion.net/

During the ProMenPol first policy workshop held on 28 November 2007 in Brussels the results were presented. Furthermore the project's benefits to the creation of a healthy, productive population as well as to healthy ageing were highlighted.

John Henderson, MHE Senior Policy Officer, was one of the speakers. He made a presentation on "A European road Map for Mental Health".
Fanny Muller, MHE Information officer, also attended the event.

For more information: ProMenPol website, http://www.mentalhealthpromotion.net/

On 9 October 2007, Josée Van Remoortel, MHE Senior Policy Officer, met with Donatella Miccinesi, AISMe Director, to discuss the setting up of a project for women with mental health problems in a prison of the Tuscany region.

The objectives of the integration project include:

• To set up self-help groups of family members;
• To support the staff in the nursery (volunteers);
• To initiate a "socialisation process" through computer courses, cooking class, leisure activities, etc.

The target population consists of about 15 women suffering from severe mental health problems often combined with drug abuse, aids, etc. Stigma is very high even amongst the prison's staff.

Since the majority of this population is not Italian, ethnic and cultural problems have to be taken into account.
AISMe is looking for interested persons or services to exchange experiences.

For more information: contact person, Donatella Miccinesi, E-mail pipini@dada.it, Tel +39 338 29 98 938

Mélanie Mazier left MHE at the end of September. She was replaced by Olivia Merlet.
Olivia Merlet is French. She has a background in social sciences and administration and she is currently doing a Master's degree in European affairs at ISMaPP.

Olivia will stay at MHE until the end of May 2008. One of Olivia's first tasks will be to take over the responsibility for the MHE membership survey that was initiated in September to identify the profiles of MHE's member organisations.

We would like to wish Olivia a warm welcome in the MHE team.

You can contact Olivia at Olivia.Merlet@mhe-sme.org

On 1-3 November, Josée Van Remoortel, Senior Policy Advisor, and John Henderson, MHE Senior Policy Advisor, represented MHE at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziale Psychiatrie e.V. (DGSP) Conference which took place in Munich (Germany). Josée spoke about the research work undertaken by MHE, while John made a presentation on the "Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being for Policy and Practice in Europe".

On 7 November, Mari Fresu attended the EPHA (European Public Health Alliance) Policy Coordination meeting in Brussels.
On the same day, Sogol Noorani took part in the final conference of the ROMAin Project “Social Inclusion of Roma in Europe” organised in the European Parliament.

On 13 November, Sogol Noorani participated in a specific meeting on migration organised by the Social Platform in Brussels.

On 14 November, Sogol Noorani participated in a meeting of the Social Platform Social Policy Working Group in Brussels.

On 15 November, Mari Fresu attended a workshop organised in Edinburgh (Scotland) by the Warwick University on Global Health and Human Rights.
On the same day, John Henderson, MHE Senior Policy Officer, represented MHE at an International Conference on "Deinstitutionalisation and Community Living: comparative perspectives and international implications", which was organised in Prague (Czech Republic) by the DECLOC (Deinstitutionalisation and community living – outcomes and costs) Project, of which MHE is an expert.

On 16 November, Mari Fresu represented MHE at an EPHA workshop on "Exploring joint research projects on the right to health and access to health care". The event took place in Edinburgh.

On 16-17 November, John Henderson represented MHE at the ECCL (European Coalition for Community Living) Management Committee meeting which was held in Prague.
On the same days, Josée Van Remoortel, MHE Senior Policy Advisor, participated in the Conference on Women and Disability, which was jointly organised by the EDF (European Disability Forum) and CERMI (Comité Español de Representantes de Minusválidos) in Madrid (Spain).

On 19-20 November, Malgorzata Kmita, MHE President, represented MHE at the Closing Conference of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in Lisbon (Portugal).

On 23-24 November, Malgorzata Kmita and John Henderson represented MHE and made presentations at a meeting on the "International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and its applications" which was organised by the Polish National Centre for Health Information Systems (NCHIS) in Warsaw (Poland).

On 26 November, Sogol Noorani, Elisabeth Muschik, MHE Vice-President, and Olivia Merlet, attended the Social Platform Annual Conference in Brussels.

On 27 November, Elisabeth Muschik and Fanny Muller took part in a meeting of the Social Platform FRAND (Fundamental rights and discrimination) Working Group in Brussels. Fanny made a presentation on the MHE Reporting Acivity on the implementation of the European Social Charter.
On the same day, John Henderson participated in the PCC meeting of the ProMenPol Project in Brussels.

On 28 November, John Henderson and Fanny Muller attended the ProMenPol 1st Policy Workshop in Brussels. John gave a presentation on "A European road Map for Mental Health".
On the same day, Mari Fresu represented MHE at a meeting of the EU Health Policy Forum organised by the European Commission in Brussels.
Again on the same day, Sogol Noorani participated in the event “Handy Cup: European Race for Everyone” in the European Parliament.

On 30 November, Sogol Noorani took part in a Conference on Social Services and Social Inclusion organised by the European Social Network in Brussels.