“HelpEx: European Qualification of Ex-Patients in the Helping Process of Rehabilitation and Recovery” is a European partnership of 8 participating organizations in 6 European countries (DE, IT, FR, CZ, PL, ML) which lasts from September 2019 to August 2022. The participating organizations are service providers in the field of mental health and provide rehabilitation and recovery services (ambulant and/or stationary) for people with mental health problems/disorders and/or substanse abuse problems. Due to the significant prevalence of mental health problems and substance abuse problems among European citizens and the political demand for inclusion, strengthening patients´ rights and empowering civil forces, the partnership develops a training curriculum for ex-patients to become assistants in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders. Complementary to the training curriculum for ex-patients the partnership also develops a training curriculum for professionals in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders to coordinate and supervise ex-patients and cooperate with them in the helping process. In order to be able to mainstream these vocational competences in the mental health system the partners also create country specific analyses of the structures and recommendations for the structural integration of the assistants in the mental health system of the partner countries. These results will be presented in three intellectual outputs (documents). People who have a personal history and experiences with mental health problems are called ex-patients in this project. They can have overcome their problems without help, may have been clients and patients of the partners or may have sought help somewhere else. Professionals in the project are considered to be paid staff members of the partners who help patients to rehabilitate and recover. They can be therapists, social workers, doctors, psychologists. For the development of the training curricula and the analyses the partners work together in 6 transnational meetings and via ICT and implement pilot trainings in their own services with 30 ex-patients and professionals. Selected parts of the trainings are implemented in two joint short-term staff trainings for 14 ex-patients and 14 professionals during the second project year. For dissemination the partners implement a multiplying event of 50 participants in each partner country, create a project website, put the results on the partner websites and on an OER platform, write 4 project newsletters and follow a dissemination plan for each country. The impact of the project is: more human ressources in mental health services, a higher quality of rehabilitation and recovery services by brining the ex-patients´ perspectives and experiences to the helping process and an empowerment of patients and civil forces.
The objectives of the project are to make the self-help-based and peer-based resources availabe for the rehabilitation and recovery services (ambulant and stationary) by training persons with personal experience of mental health problems ("ex-patients") as assistants and by training professionals and ex-patients to work together in the helping process of a patient. As the involvement and training of ex-patients in the services should ideally result in a new vocational profile on the assistant level, it is necessary to reflect on the structures of the health care systems in the countries, how this profile fits into the systems and the different services and how it can be financed.
The number of persons suffering from mental diseases or disorders are increasing across Europe, e. g. depression, anxiety disorders or alcohol and/or drug use disorders. This puts the health care systems of the European countries under pressure. At the same time the demand for social inclusion and for the respect of patient´s rights grow, too. The health care systems in Europe need to find additional resources to cover the growing demand for help with regard to mental health. The professionals (therapists, psychologists, clincial social workers, doctors) in the rehabilitation and recovery system need to find ways to cope with the growing demand and to strengthen the rights of patients, to foster social inclusion and to value and benefit from the self-help-based and peer-based resources in this field. The ex-patients not only support the rehabilitation and recovery services but also benefit personally from passing personal experiences, a positive self-image and healthy coping strategies on to current patients. The current patients profit from more staff resources in the health care system and from encounters with persons in the helping process who have overcome a mental disorder, disease or substance abuse.