CommonPoint is a 24 month long strategic partnership project initiated by four NGOs from Europe working with sexual minorities (LGBTQI people). Link them up with professionals interested in learning about this group through an educational program. Public and private professional services need specific training materials that recognize the realities of LGBTQI people, that allow users to focus on the definition of their training and employment projects and develop strategies to raise awareness among mental health service providers on gender and sexual diversity, so that LGBTQI people can exercise their rights to health. It is clear, therefore, that it is essential to advance awareness and training all areas of the world of mental health on the need to promote specific measures aimed at eradicating mechanisms, behaviors and attitudes that discriminate or exclude people based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This project proposes, through the exchange of good practices at European level, to develop innovative materials of wide diffusion that gather these experiences and multiply their impact in diverse territorial contexts. Specifically, the project aims to create an innovative and easily accessible material to train professionals in the field of mental health, in order to promote the design of personalized support programs for LGBTQI people in their empowerment processes. With this project we aim to link the needs of LGBTQI people with professionals interested in learning about this group through an educational program. This project is following these specific objectives: - improve the social inclusion of LGBTQI people by increase the number of mental health services tailored to the needs of LGBTQI people; - increase the knowledge, skills and cultural competences of mental health professionals (school counselors, crisis hotline operators, employee assistance programs counselors, social workers, clinical psychologists) on LGBTQI people; - develop a manual for an accredited training course of mental health professionals based on good practices collected in the field - develop innovative online tools and methods for training mental health professionals; - share good practices among LGBTQI organization active in the field of mental health. The project aims at developing an offline and an online education program about sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQI people) for professionals in the social and mental health care system. As an intellectual output of this project experts from the participating organisations will create a Handbook with methods and tools to use during a two-day in person training programs (for 4 different target groups) and well as an E-learning material with a 16 hours online training program (for 4 different target groups) available on an online training platform. The project also organises 2 international mutual learning events; where the partner NGOs can share their best practices, train their staff members to become trainers and mentors for the adult learners as well as train the first users of the offline and online learning materials. Necessarily, the developed training course and e-learning modules are accompanied by awareness-raising on prevention and detection of violations of rights of LGBTQI people in the health services and the promotion of measures that guarantee the right to equal treatment and opportunities of this groups.
We had five particular objectives during the planning, implementation and follow-up of this project. 1) Improving social inclusion of LGBTQI+ people by increasing the number of mental health service providers tailored to the needs of LGBTQI+ people; 2) increasing knowledge, skills and cultural competencies of mental health professionals in four specific target groups (school counsellors, crisis hotline operators, social workers, clinical psychologists); 3) developing a manual based on best practices and current models for mental health professionals who train students and other professionals; 4) developing innovative online tools and methods for training mental health professionals directly; 5) sharing best practices among LGBTQI+ organizations active in the field of mental health.
Common Point is a strategic partnership project initiated by four NGOs from Europe working with sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQI+ people). Public and private mental health professional services need specific training materials that recognize the realities of LGBTQI people. Throughout formal education, mental health professionals lack opportunities to gain knowledge and skills for supporting LGBTQI+ people effectively. Some dedicated professors might include the topic in specific courses, still, a significant gap remains between the amount of knowledge and practical skills possibly learned at universities and the real needs of LGBTQI+ people seeking support. Nevertheless, practitioners also lack the opportunity to work on their attitudes toward sexuality, and sexual and gender minorities, which is crucial to providing quality support for affected populations. By implementing this project, we aimed to tackle this gap with non-formal educational methods as well as raise awareness of the importance of specific knowledge, skills and attitudes that professionals must acquire to provide quality support for LGBTQI+ people.