Mindfulness as a practice is thousands of years old in fact, but its techniques have been adapted by modern psychology in recent years. Ever since, its applicability to everyday life and especially its stress-combating effect have become renowned worldwide. However, its application to professionals in the mental health field is something which has not been focused on to date, and we believe this practice to be a vital tool in tackling the most common issues facing people working in this area as well as a way to accompany their patients' recovery.Be Mindful project’s main objective is the development of a tailor-made training program in Mindfulness for Mental Health Professionals. The 12 week training program will consist of two parts, Mindfulness practice on a personal level, followed by an experiential phase centered on how to practice Mindfulness with people with mental health issues. The training modules will be developed jointly by psychology professionals from three different organizations, all of them with ample experience in research, design and delivery of Mindfulness trainings to professionals from different fields as well as the general public.Individuals working with people with mental health issues face immense levels of stress and difficult situations daily. The techniques taught through Be Mindful training programme will directly address such issues and provide professionals with the tools and skillset to accurately and effectively disengage and deal with the situation at hand, lessening rumination and perceived stress. The mental health professionals involved will begin to feel calmer, think more clearly and have better reactions to the their surroundings, which will have a positive effect on the people with mental health issues under their care. Be Mindful project aims to not only train professionals in this life skill but also construct a training programme whereby professionals will be trained in the specific needs and application of mindfulness to people with mental health issues. This is also a novel approach, and using peer learning, as well as the online training course, will allow the programme to become accessible to a wide array of people whilst ensuring the training is accurate and effective for those who undertake it.The training will be available in two modalities, through the Be Mindful theoretical-practical Handbook and through an online training programme hosted on a Moodle platform, which will permit professionals all over Europe and beyond to undertake the course. At least 64 professionals from the mental health sector will be trained in Spain and Slovenia during two pilot experiences organized within the project. The first of which will be a face- to-face course in order to test the Be Mindful training program itself, and the second will be an online tutored pilot experience aimed at testing the usability of the online platform and the adaptation of contents to the online learning environment. The shape of the training will be an organic, open, flexible, spiraling model of growth that will promote collaboration with participants towards positive change in mental healthcare. Participants can expect to enhance mental fitness and clarity, reduce stress responses, enhance creativity, develop greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence, develop better communication and decision-making skills, and experience greater overall wellbeing.Furthermore, the consortium for Be Mindful plans to implement a complex PR campaign involving the latest trends in content-marketing to disseminate the results in the most effective manner, reaching a wide proportion of the public and initiating a dialogue with it. This will guarantee a multiplying effect and encourage partners and local and regional authorities to think about its future large-scale incarnations.Our plan for this project is to not only provide a career changing tool for professionals working in mental health, which will both directly and indirectly affect the lives of those people suffering with mental health issues under their care, but also to prove the widespread value and transferable aspect of the mindfulness technique. Once the technique has been learned it can be applied to every situation, not least further training undergone by mental health professionals. This technique will not only improve working conditions, lessen the effects of stress and increase longevity in the mental health workforce but also change opinions and approaches towards all future training within the field. It is an invaluable life skill to have, and this project hopes to highlight that for policy makers affecting Mental Health across Europe, as has already been achieved in the United States. Its benefits have been widely proven within the public domain, but now is the time to harness those successes and apply them to the professional sector to furthermore increase its radiating effects.
Mindfulness as a practice is thousands of years old in fact, but its techniques have been adopted by modern psychology in recent years. Ever since, its applicability to everyday life and especially its stress-combating effect has become renowned worldwide. However, its application to professionals in the mental health field is something which has not been focused on to date, and we believe this practice to be a vital tool in tackling the most common issues facing people working in this area as well as a way to accompany their patients' recovery. The Be Mindful project was an international collaboration between specialists in Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and service providers in the mental health field. Professionals from 3 different countries and 5 organizations- Intras Foundation, Ozara d.o.o., PsicACT, IPSA and ACT Institutet- have joined forces to work together on the development of an innovative training course in mindfulness for mental health professionals. Information on the partner organizations can be found on https://www.bemindful-project.eu/tipo-portfolio/partners/. Be Mindful project’s main objective was the development of Be Mindful&ACT, a tailor-made online training program in Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Mental Health Professionals. The finalized 13-week training program combines action mechanisms traditionally attributed to interventions based on mindfulness with the last years’ advances in elements that have proven to be enriching in protocols directed at augmenting the Psychological Flexibility from the perspective of the functional-contextual science. The training program uses a metaphor of maritime navigation to refer to going through life- the ship serves as an analogy of the body and the weather conditions represent the thoughts, feelings and sensations. The first part of the program focuses on the potentiation of the own psychological flexibility of the mental health professionals and learning ways to relate with stressful thoughts and feelings to enable actions based on what is important to the individual at a precise moment. The second part of the program has been specifically designed to be employed in the work with patients and clients. The training modules have been developed by psychologists with ample experience in research, design and delivery of mindfulness trainings to professionals from different fields. Individuals working with people with mental health issues face immense levels of stress and difficult situations daily. The techniques taught through Be Mindful training program directly address such issues and provide professionals with the tools and skill set to accurately and effectively disengage and deal with the situation at hand, lessening rumination and perceived stress. The mental health professionals trained in BeMindful&ACT begin to feel calmer, think more clearly and have better reactions to what surrounds them, which has a positive effect on the people with mental health issues under their care. Be Mindful&ACT provides the professionals with knowledge on the specific needs and application of mindfulness to people with mental health issues. The online modality of Be Mindful&ACT makes the program accessible to professionals all over Europe and beyond, whilst the availability of an online tutor ensures the training is accurate and effective for those who undertake it. Fifty-eight professionals from the mental health sector were trained in Spain and Slovenia during the online tutored pilot experience of Be Mindful&ACT, aimed at testing the training program's contents and the usability of the online platform. The training program and the platform were amended based on the evaluations of the participants in the pilot. The shape of the finalized BeMindful&ACT e-learning course is an organic, open, flexible, spiraling model of growth that promotes positive change in mental healthcare. Participants can expect to enhance clarity of mind, reduce stress responses, develop greater self-awareness and self-compassion, and learn to realize own internal responses that will lead to therapeutic relationships marked by empathy and harmony. The final version of the training can be accessed from the section “training course” of the Be Mindful project’s website (https://www.bemindful-project.eu/ ) in three languages: English, Spanish and Slovenian. To access the training course, click on the course in the desired language version and introduce the user: demo/ password: Demo.2018.