Due to the social stigma surrounding their pathology, People with mental illness (PWMI) still experience social exclusion and are especially vulnerable to have their basic Human Rights violated in different spheres of their lives. Contrary to what one may think, the violation can take place in the framework of health and social care services- such as community service centers, day care centers or physicians offices, among others- either because of paternalism, prejudice or ignorance of the service providers. Organizations and health and social service professionals (HSSP)- but also family members and individuals affected by mental condition- may consider as valid some decisions and actions that imply violation of rights, because they often simply don’t realize that certain practices actually abuse basic human rights. When it comes to vulnerable groups, such as people with mental disability, the mere contemplation of Human Right principles in our countries’ legislation doesn’t itself assure their observance in context of patients with disability. What DOES assure it, is having well informed, trained and sensitized professionals that put Human Rights in practice. Nevertheless to this day no sector specific training in Human Rights of People with Mental Illness has been made available to general public. This is why the BE RIGHT project consortium- composed of 6 organizations referent in Research/ Health and Social Services Provision/ VET Education delivery from 5 EU countries- has decided to join their expertise and capacities to address the evident need of training in Human Rights of PWMI applied to the health and social services sector. BE RIGHT project's purpose is to develop an innovative tailor made training in Human Rights in the context of service provision aimed in particular at professionals of health and social services that work- directly or indirectly- with PWMI. The BE RIGHT training course will have a double focus, on the one hand, equipping the professionals with baseline knowledge about human rights in context of social and health services and, on the other hand, addressing practical application of the human rights approach in the context of provision of services to PWMI. The objective is for Health and Social Service Professionals (HSSP) to be introduced to, sensitized and finally able to put in practice the human rights based approach in their working context. The training course will be designed in coproduction between service users- experts by experience- and professionals in the field of Mental Health, VET training and Human Rights. It will be highly practical, interactive, compelling and easily replicable. The course will be delivered in the framework of a pilot test at 5 partner organizations to a total of 75 professionals. Thanks to its e-learning format the final version of the training course will be available free of charge, Europe-wide and beyond, to any organization interested in delivering the course to their own professionals. BE RIGHT project partners believe that the extreme vulnerability of PWMI against their human rights violation can be stopped only if they themselves know their rights and are aware of which treatment received is correct and which is not only not correct but also reportable. Considering the specific conditions of PWMI- whose concentration and learning ability is often limited due to the illness symptoms and/or as side effect of the medication- BE RIGHT project will conceive and develop a tailor made, accessible educational board game that will- in an easy and fun way- help provide the PWMI with empowering knowledge about their Human Rights as citizens, patients and service users. All the materials necessary to assemble and play the game- game board, cards with questions/tasks/answers, game chips- will be accessible for free download and printing on the Be Right project website, together with a comprehensive user's guide. The BE RIGHT consortium is determined to create a bottom up working context within the project, where the two target groups- People with mental illness and Professionals providing health and social services- will work hand in hand, together with the partner organizations at all stages (co-production), i.e. the work group in charge of the development of the training will be composed of persons with personal experience of mental health problems. Thanks to the outputs quality and design- assuring its easy transferability to any external organization within the sector-, to its online availability in 6 EU languages and to the well planned dissemination campaign, the Human Rights training course and the educational board game will reach the community of health and social service practitioners all through Europe, preparing them to carry out their professional activity, respecting and advocating the Human Rights of their patients/clients with mental illness and empowering the latter (PWMI) to know their own rights and stand for them.
Due to the social stigma surrounding their pathology, People with mental illness (PWMI) still experience social exclusion and are especially vulnerable to have their basic Human Rights violated in different spheres of their lives. Contrary to what one may think, the violation can take place in the framework of health and social care services- such as community service centers, day care centers or physicians’ offices, among others- either because of paternalism, prejudice or ignorance of the service providers. Organizations and health and social service professionals (HSSP)- but also family members and individuals affected by mental health condition- may consider as valid some decisions and actions that imply violation of rights, because they often don’t realize that certain practices actually abuse basic human rights. When it comes to vulnerable groups, such as people with mental disability, the mere contemplation of Human Right principles in our countries’ legislation doesn’t itself assure their observance in the practice. What DOES assure it, are well trained and sensitized professionals who put Human Rights in practice. BE RIGHT project consortium- composed of 6 organizations referent in Research/ Health and Social Services Provision/ VET Education delivery from 5 EU countries- joined forces to together develop the first sector specific training course in Human Rights of PWMI applied to the context of health and social services provision. The course is addressed at health and social services professionals working with persons living with mental illness. It is composed of 15 theoretical-practical training units with a double focus, on the one hand, equipping the professionals with baseline knowledge about human rights in context of social and health services and, on the other hand, addressing practical application of the human rights approach in the context of provision of services to PWMI. The objective is for Health and Social Service Professionals (HSSP) to be introduced to, sensitized and finally able to put in practice the human rights based approach in their working context. The course has been designed in co-production between service users- experts by experience- and professionals in the field of Mental Health, VET training and Human Rights from 5 European organizations. Thanks to its e-learning format the final version of the training course is available free of charge in 6 languages to any professional or organization interested in offering the training course to its professionals at https://training.beright-mh.eu/?lang=en BE RIGHT project partners believe that the extreme vulnerability of PWMI against their human rights violation can be stopped only if they themselves know their rights and are aware of which treatment received is correct and which is not only not correct but also reportable. Considering the specific conditions of PWMI- whose concentration and learning ability is often limited due to the illness symptoms and/or as side effect of the medication- BE RIGHT project developed a tailor made, accessible educational board game that- in an easy and fun way- helps to provide the PWMI with empowering knowledge about their Human Rights as citizens, patients and service users. All the materials necessary to assemble and play the game- the board, activity cards with questions/tasks, instructions and answers book- are available for download and printing in 6 languages, free of charge, on the Be Right project website: http://www.beright-mh.eu/index.php/educational-board-game/ The main innovative aspect and the added value of the BE RIGHT project lies in the fact that the project’s consortium created a bottom up working context within the project, where the two target groups- people with first-hand experience of mental illness and professionals providing health and social services- worked hand in hand, together with the partner organizations at all stages (co-production): needs analysis, educational tools development, pedagogical test of the pilot version of the tools, developing the final version of the tools.