New teaching & learning in Mental Health

"Evidence from WHO reports suggested that nearly half of the world's population are affected by mental illness with an impact on their self-esteem, relationships and ability to function in everyday life. Adults and children with mental illness may experience social stigma, which can lead to anti-social behaviors and prevent them from living an enriching life.NETWBL stressed that a lack of workplace experience and the related skills and competences were one of the factors contributing to the ""skills gap"" in the EU today. While 5.6 million young people in the EU suffer the consequences of unemployment, 36% of employers' reported that they struggle to find new recruits with the skills they need. Something was clearly wrong. The need to identify, adapt and adopt practices which can tackle this skills gap was urgent. Reflecting on these context , the participating organisations made a needs analysis, and identified 3 mayor needs as common for all partners and to be attained during the project: 1. Together with mental health organisations, we wanted to develop creative and real life learning models integrating high quality vocational education and professional reflective work based learning as for example a learning ward with students. 2. We explored new approaches for the continuous professional development of relevant high-quality competences of teachers, staff, trainers and mentors facilitating the menthal health of our students and colleagues. 3. We took teaching to the next level and create new approaches to reflective teaching as a process of self-observation and self-evaluation, leading to better self-awareness and confidence. Answering these needs analysis and common challenges, the objectives of the project were as follows: 1- improving the competences of our students regarding reflective ability and qualified self determination - developing creative and real life learning models integrating work based learning 2 - motivating our teams to practice a recovery oriented practice and language - building a context in our organisations of inclusion of mental health, integrating the well-being of studnts and colleagues in daily life 3 - increasing teachers's motivation and enthousiasm for one's work and maintain contacts with working life - providing teachers in Europe with new tools and effective methods to coaching of their students. - inspiring (school & VET) leaders into a growing mind-set of reflective leadership We expected a clear positive and substantial impact on the participating organisations, their staff and, if applicable, their learners. All participating organisations learnt from the knowledge and good practices shared during the activities in the project and thiss improved the quality of their overall improvement,work and regular activities, also after the project end. All participating organisations enhanced their capacity as a learning organisation: a dynamic and professional environment ready to integrate good practices into daily activities and open to synergies with partners in Europe. Moreover there was a specific innovative impact on the organisations participating in the project: - we mainstreamed recovery oriented language in the practice of their organisations - we integrated new opportunities in VET, teaching and work based learning - we attained highly demanded skills and competences in labour market of mental health - we enhanced the leadership/initiative skills of their staff members while organising events - we enriched the managing skills of the participating teams while participating in the deliverance of the manual. - we built a context in their our organisations of inclusion of mental health, integrating the well-being of students and colleagues - we increased their teachers's motivation and enthousiasm for one's work and maintain contacts with working life The transnational dimension added value regarding the innovative quality of the project outcomes, in particular: - We deliverd guidelines 'New teaching and learning in Mental Health' and integrated them in a website - We integrated in this website cultural differences, assessments, and competing professional theories on ‘mental health’ The multilingual european manual “New teaching & learning in Mental Health”, as a tangible tool an sich, has not been realized because of Covid 19. Instead of this manual we brought all our knowledge and insights together in a website. Still, the website is a nice representation of everyone's contribution to the project and can serve as a manual for a broad audience. In this way dissemination is also assured."