Coordination of Capacity Building, Fight against Discrimination and Awareness Raising in the Mental Health Field: A European Challenge! (2004-2006)

Funded by

European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities - Action Programme to Combat Discrimination

Duration

24 months, from 2004 to 2006

Summary

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) were involved with this work.

Objectives

• To reinforce capacity building of MHE's member organisations, especially in the new EU Member States, and involve them in the EU policy making process;
• To provide 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;
• To raise awareness and fight against discrimination of people with mental health problems;
• To encourage our members to share information and collaborate with other European NGOs;
• To ensure that the voices of our member organisations are expressed at the European level;
• To organise training sessions for our members from the new Member States;
• To organise visits to provide exchange of experience and knowledge, and encourage support from our member organisations by organising twinning projects;
• 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;
• To build the capacity of our member organisation to set up Mental Health Associations in the new Member States.

Activities and outcomes

• Seminar on 'European policies towards the integration of people with mental health problems' (4 February 2005, Brussels): representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament made presentations on the role of the European Parliament in the development of European policies in the field of mental health, the global EU Strategy on Disability and discrimination in the field of disability, the EU social inclusion process and the EU mental health policy;
• Seminar on '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.

Publications and documents

Report on EU Policies seminar 

Report on WHO action plan MHE seminar 

Lead organisation

Mental Health Europe

Contact

MHE Secretariat