According to the World Health organisation latest report of the 5.2 million births in the EU each year, approximately 104,000 (2%) will be born with congenital anomalies. It means that more than 104, 000 families are affected and their future will depend on timely an adequate support provided by the first professional to whom they rely on. Thus, gynecologists, neonatologist, midwifes nurses, carers face a new challenge which they need to overcome – to communicate , interact and support the parents of newborns with congenital disabilities and subsequently complex needs. The latest evidence in the field of neonatology and early child development destine key role of early stimulation and intervention of premature babies and babies with congenital disabilities in order to secure their normal development which should start as early as possible. In this situation the parents alongside with the medical professionals working in Obstetrics and Gyneacology, and Neonatology also play a very important role for the babies’ development and for stabilizing of the family at the critical stage of appearance of newborn with disability. The medical staff role is the most important at this stage not because of the medical care and the specific information they provide but especially because of their mediation role between parents and the newborn and facilitation of the initial relationship between them. Changes that occur to parents are very significant and they need greatly support to adopt these changes and coping with difficulties. That is why the MedVET support project put the emphasis on the social, emotional and professional well-being with a training that addresses holistic aspects of the medical professionals’ daily work. This training will help them to develop new strategies that they can apply to ensure the support of parents. Medical professionals also will be trained to recognize the signs and to work on the abandonment prevention at level of the maternity ward and will be aware of the essence of the term "child at risk". The gynecologists, neonatologist, midwifes nurses, carers will be able to support parents to build up their new everyday life strategy in order to ensure smooth physical, emotional and cognitive development of the newborn family member with disability. Hence, the medical professionals should execute new tasks - to communicate, interact and support the parents of newborns with disabilities who are extremely vulnerable at this crisis moment. Preliminary research on the problem has shown that medical university/college curriculum does not cover any aspects of communication, interaction and support of parents with newborns with or at risk of acquiring disabilities. To fulfill this gap MedVET support project will develop an innovative ECVET based programme as part of six outputs which correlate and contribute one to another: IO 1: Holistic framework of socio-medical models for parents support IO 2: ECVET based MedVET support training curriculum IO 3: MedVET support Training programme and Assessment mechanism IO 4: Peer support portal IO 5: Mobile learning app IO 6: interactive good practice guide These outputs will be developed by a team of 8 partners from 4 countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium and Turkey) consisting of 2 universities, 3 NGOs , 1 SME, 1 hospital and 2 centres for medical and psycho-social rehabilitation. i The quality and the applicability of the outputs will be tested with small scale of piloters in each partners country. The final MedVEt support project outcomes will be demonstrated among key stakeholders and representatives of project's target groups within one final international multiplier event which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey and three national multiplier events which will be held in Bulgaria, Romania and Belgium. The total number of the participants will be 280 all over the Europe. Thus, the project will reach professionals who will be able to contribute to sustainable use of its results.
According to the World Health organisation latest report, of the 5.2 million births in the EU each year, approximately 104,000 (2%) will be born with congenital anomalies. It means that more than 104, 000 families are affected and their future will depend on timely and adequate support provided by the first professional to whom they rely on. Thus, gynaecologists, neonatologists, midwifes nurses, carers face a new challenge which they need to overcome – to communicate , interact and support the parents of new-borns with congenital disabilities and subsequently complex needs. The latest evidence in the field of neonatology and early child development destine key role of early stimulation and intervention of premature babies and babies with congenital disabilities in order to secure their normal development which should start as early as possible. In this situation the parents alongside with the medical professionals working in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Neonatology also play a very important role for the babies’ development and for stabilizing of the family at the critical stage of appearance of new-born with disability. The medical staff role is the most important at this stage not only because of the medical care and the specific information they provide, but especially because of their mediation role between parents and the new-born and facilitation of the initial relationship between them. Changes that occur to parents are very significant and they greatly need support to adopt these changes and cope with difficulties. Medvet project has been started on the 01/09/2017 and has been successfully finalised on 31/12/2020. 7 partners were committed to create a set of training modules supported by online self-assessment tools following 3 learning pathways for medical doctors, nurses and midwives, caregivers and doulas respectively. One of the key achievements in the project is the unique living library, which contains 16 Live Books from parents of children with disabilities or premature babies, gynaecologists, neonatologists and midwives. All outcomes have been delivered in all partner languages. Our project has put the emphasis on the social, emotional and professional well-being with a training programme that addresses holistic aspects of the medical professionals’ daily work. This training has helped them to develop new strategies that they can apply to ensure the support of parents. Medical professionals (around 160 trained till the end of the project), were trained to recognize the signs and to work on the abandonment prevention at level of the maternity ward and were made aware of the essence of the term "child at risk". The gynaecologists, neonatologists, midwifes nurses, carers are now able to support parents to build up their new everyday life strategy in order to ensure smooth physical, emotional and cognitive development of the new-born family member with disability. Hence, the medical professionals should execute new tasks - to communicate, interact and support the parents of new-borns with disabilities who are extremely vulnerable at this crisis moment. Therefor at the heart of MedVET project lies a specialized training program, which provides to the medical professionals successful models for sparing communication and efficient interaction with families. Following outcomes were realised: IO 1: Holistic framework of socio-medical models for parents support IO 2: ECVET based MedVET support training curriculum IO 3: MedVET support Training programme and Assessment mechanism IO 4: Peer support portal IO 5: Mobile learning app (Android and iOS) IO 6: interactive good practice guide These outputs were developed by a team of 7 partners from 4 countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium and Turkey) consisting of 2 universities, 3 NGOs , 1 SME, and 1 private hospital. The quality and the applicability of the created training materials and tools were tested with small scale piloting implemented in each partner country. The final MedVET outcomes were demonstrated among key stakeholders and representatives of project's target groups within one final international multiplier event held virtually and two physical national multiplier events held in Bulgaria and Belgium. The total number of the participants exceeded 250. All project outcomes can be found through its website www.medvet-project.eu/, which is available in all partner languages as well as in EN.