Serious mental disorders that can compromise parenting ability. In the research conducted, children frequently report experiences of neglect and abuse, feelings of fear or danger due to the psychiatric symptoms of their parents for whom they are "forced" to become caregivers.
The data and research on this condition are fragmented and too often incomplete, but they provide a dramatic picture. In 2004 (Nicholson et al.) reported that the 67% of women and the 75% of men experiencing conditions of serious mental distress (including schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, severe depression) are parents.
Furthermore, the interaction between genetics and environment in combination with high exposure to emotional stress represents a risk factor for children (both minors and adults) to develop psychiatric problems in the future.
Hence the need to raise awareness and inform civil society on the topic and to focus on concrete tools to support the children of parents with mental health problems. The project therefore worked, thanks to the collaboration of partners from different countries (Belgium, Greece, Italy and Turkey), on sharing good practices on advocacy strategies and promoting a change in policies at national and EU level. The main recipients of the information and awareness actions, in addition to mental health professionals, were family caregivers: to orient them to the support services of mental health services and to promote the exchange of experiences and mutual help.
The project was based on the belief that a more welcoming and inclusive society responds more effectively to the many critical issues arising from mental distress. Work, in this sense, represents a fundamental piece in everyone's life and an essential step towards building an autonomous and more fulfilling life.
Over the two years of the project's life, the people involved were included in modular paths which included various actions including: orientation and assessment of skills; empowerment interventions, self-promotion, social inclusion; accompaniment, tutoring and exploration of training and work opportunities; psychological support; family support and counseling.
An individual project was developed for each person taken care of, starting from each person's skills and resources. Comparison and dialogue within professionalizing and expressive workshops was one of the strong elements of the project.
Over 60% of the participants took part in training internships, which in some cases were transformed into actual employment contracts.
From the experience of the "Getting in motion" project, various initiatives on workplace inclusion have arisen over time, also thanks to information and awareness-raising actions in the public and private world on mental health problems.
The Project is recognized at European level within the Erasmus+ programme, through which the European Commission wants to encourage joint work between partners from different countries, to build an integrated path towards a quality of life that facilitates well-being and social inclusion , against stigma and marginalization.
A strategic program for the European Community, if we consider that mental disorders affect approximately 27% (83m.) of European citizens annually (European Social Work, 2013).
HERO - sharing the know-how of various EU countries relating to the social inclusion of people with serious mental distress, training methods and consolidated practice in the housing sector - aims to study what makes a place or which makes it a source of well-being, not only for users, but also for their family members, operators and citizens. Places that must be interconnected, permeable, habitable and modifiable. Where everyone can feel welcomed as a person, not characterized or stigmatized. Where everyone can recognize that mental health (and not only) is a heritage that concerns everyone and can be achieved if everyone is involved.
By housing we mean a process that favors the transition from the helping relationship to social inclusion. Numerous studies have shown how "community-based" services obtain better results in terms of treatment compliance, clinical symptoms, quality of life, housing stability and rehabilitation, compared to other models of care (Braun P. et al. 1981 ; Conway M. et al. 1994; Bond et al. 2001). At the same time, housing understood in this way is connected to the safeguarding of rights (citizenship, reduction of stigma, etc.), the rationalization of public spending (offering an alternative to the costs of excessive recourse to institutionalisation) and the development of an active and competent citizenry.
The project "You learn to do well at school" is a journey of peer education which takes place in two high schools in Rome over the course of three years. The aim of the project is promote well-being and prevent bullying through a peer approach, where students are trained as peer counselors to support their peers.
The first phase of the project involves the entire student body and has the aim of making it cohesive and enhancing it as a resource and protection factor. Through the intervention and guidance of the psychological team, the classes worked on creating a sense of belonging, collaboration, cooperation and integration between peers. This work allowed the creation of a positive and well-being climate, to limit marginalization or isolation, phenomena which can cause, in addition to individual discomfort with consequent poor academic performance and possible school dropouts, the onset of the phenomenon of bullying.
The second phase involves the identification, within the various classes, of students motivated to become peer consultants and provides them with training to strengthen personal resources, develop self-efficacy and skills (empowerment) identified together, including and shared (life skills). This was followed by monitoring, support and supervision of the peer counselors.
The third phase aims to consolidate the work done and further develop the function of peer counselors by integrating it into an educational program based on promoting well-being at school. Peer counselors become peer educators and enter the classroom to raise awareness among their classmates about the topics they have learned.
The project, aimed mainly at people over 40 residing in the city of Rome who have lost their jobs, introduced actions that have been taken up over the years in various locations, both at national level and in the European Community.
Supply emotional and psychological support, intervene on recovery and enhancement of professionalism and skills, activate networks and resources for re-entry into the job market, the cornerstones of the project are still strategic interventions for the employment inclusion of people with fragility.
Unfortunately, this is an ever-present topic if you consider that the unemployment rate in Italy today (15-64 years) is 7.6%, the inactivity rate - relating to people who have stopped looking for work - is 33.5%; these data for women are 8.7% and 42.7% respectively. If we observe the situation only in the South, the data are all worse: unemployment 13.9%, inactivity 44.2%, female 16.1%, youth 35% (Istat, June 2023).
Among the tools successfully tested by the project, to combat the state of poverty and unemployment, we highlight: orientation and relational reactivation meetings; the welcome, support and coaching service; the provision of an income support "Grant". Individual paths which, combined with group work, accompanied the development of entrepreneurial skills and abilities of the participants and actively contributed to the recovery of psychological balance and the prevention of forms of serious mental distress.
All the actions implemented to date represent good practices that can be replicated with their intervention model.
