CONTEXT 70% of European adults have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives, resulted from, either: - Accidents, natural disasters, biological factors (e.g. Corona Virus) - Child abuse or neglect - Physical, emotional or sexual abuse - Grief and loss - Medical interventions - War and other forms of violence - Witnessing acts of violence - Cultural, intergenerational and historical trauma In the countries involved in this project, the rate of individuals with Post Traumatic Disorder (PTD), is 8.37% in Spain, 8.4% in Romania. Unfortunately, there are no available rates since 2014 in Turkey and Cyprus because attempts to reach estimations are still to be made, and the situation changed globally so much since that year. In Spain, after the pandemic starts, 53% of the health staff showed signs of PTD. The percentage of professionals trained in mental health is proved to be low in the countries partners of the project, especially in this period, when mental health is the main key to adapt to the new reality: 9.6 mental health trained professional/ 100 000 citizens in Spain, 5.6 in Cyprus, 4.5 in Turkey and 7.8 in Romania, while the European average is 18 professionals/100 000 citizens. Therefore, through our project we aim to develop an innovative training package for health VET trainers to use as a basic tool to train health support staff to familiarise them with PTD and increase their skills and competences to recognise and treat individuals with traumatic disorders through proper strategies for de-escalating stressful interactions. OBJECTIVES AND TARGET GROUPS Online Colour Therapy project will involve at least 360 persons: 160 Health support staff and health VET trainers in the online Training courses, Virtual Reality scenarios, Psychotherapy working groups on how to treat post-traumatic disorder through colour therapy, and in C1& C2 trainings (40 persons-ES, 40-RO, 40-TR, 40-CY) 200 (at least) Decision makers, health experts, specialists, professionals- as results of the dissemination activities (50 persons-ES, 50-RO, 50-TR, 50-CY) Objectives: Obj.1 design, test and publish an innovative training package for health VET trainers, which will be their tool to train health support staff to acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding about PTD and develop the skills and competences necessary to recognise, interact, and treat appropriately individuals with PTD Obj.2 deliver training courses to directly train health support staff in a set of skills and, also, to deliver these courses to a target group of health VET trainers and health support staff, in order to amplify and perpetuate the ripple effect of those courses Obj.3 help families/social group of individuals with PTD connect with health support staff and develop mutual trust in coping with the process and emergency situations. METHODOLOGY TO BE USED The project coordinator will ensure the smooth communication flow between partners. To legally ensure the successful realization of the project, a consortium agreement will be signed by all project partners. The lead partner will create a steering committee-SC (1 delegate/ partner), who will be responsible to report to the project coordinator and to the management team all the financial and administrative tasks of the partner. The SC will meet face to face 4 times, monitoring the development and progress of project's activities with the partners responsible and coordinating each project components. SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN RESULTS The project will achieve as main tangible results: - A curriculum box training in post-traumatic disorder through art therapy - A specific art Psychotherapy working groups’ methodology - A Colour therapist manual for PTD group treatment sessions. - 2 LTTAs will be organized with 5 participants/each partner country (C1- in ES, for health VET trainers, and C2- CY, for health support staff) - A Virtual Reality environment will be created, with scenarios for treating PTD. - 4 Camps (ME), one in each partner’s country IMPACT ENVISAGED & POTENTIAL LONGER-TERM BENEFITS Our long-term objective for impact is rising the awareness of how important are post-traumatic disorder treatments, how important is art therapy- mainly colour therapy in treating mental health issues, how can different target groups and education communities’ benefit from these new skills, with special focus on improving mental health. After the Erasmus+ programme funding is finished, the main project outputs (curriculum box, VR environment, psychotherapy working groups methodology, colour therapist manual for PTD group treatment sessions) will continue to be used by the project partners and will be available for free for the public for at least 5 years.
Having health support staff as final beneficiaries, we proposed a project with the following objectives: Obj.1 design, test and publish an innovative training package for health VET trainers, which will be their tool to train health support staff to acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding about PTD and develop the skills and competences necessary to recognise, interact, and treat appropriately individuals with PTD Obj.2 deliver training courses to directly train health support staff in a set of skills and, also, to deliver these courses to a target group of health VET trainers and health support staff, in order to amplify and perpetuate the ripple effect of those courses Obj.3 help families/social group of individuals with PTD connect with health support staff and develop mutual trust in coping with the process and emergency situations.
We decided to apply for this project because art is a powerful tool in communication. It is now widely acknowledged that art expression is a way to visually communicate thoughts and feelings that are too painful to put into words. Creative activity has also been used in psychotherapy and counselling not only because it serves another language but also because of its inherent ability to help people of all ages explore emotions and beliefs, reduce stress, resolve problems and conflicts, and enhance their sense of well-being (C. Malchiodi- Art Therapy, 2008). Making art is proved to be a way of coping with trauma or to events that are too difficult to assimilate. COLOUR THERAPY means using colours, patterns, subjects, images, paint, crayons, chalks, etc., to create drawings and work paintings during a guided psychotherapeutic session, as a Post Traumatic Disorder treatment. By using the colour therapy process as a metaphor for the conflicts, emotions, and situations experienced, the patient has the opportunity to own his/her choices, to express the true feelings and positions upon a traumatic event, tap the unconscious and help express covert conflicts, bringing into awareness thoughts and feelings that were previously hidden, discover new mental connections, meanings and purposes. The artistic process serves as stage for therapist–patient dialogue. 70% of European adults have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives (Council for Behavioral Health), resulted from, either: - Child abuse or neglect - Physical, emotional or sexual abuse - Grief and loss - Medical interventions - War and other forms of violence - Accidents, natural disasters, biological factors (e.g. Corona Virus) - Witnessing acts of violence - Cultural, intergenerational and historical trauma More than 33% of youths exposed to community violence will experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a very severe reaction to traumatic events. The highest risk of PTD to be present between the age of 18 and 24 years for both men and women (Creamer and Parslow, PTSD, 2015) followed by the age of 45 and 54 years among men, and 55 and 64 years among women. About 7-8% of the population will have PTD at some point in their lives. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma. 40 million people from Europe suffer from PTD episodes (World Health Organisation 2017). The percentage of professionals trained in mental health is proved to be low in the countries partners of the project, especially in this period, when mental health is the main key to adapt to the new reality. Therefore, through our project we developed an innovative training package for health VET trainers to use as a basic tool to train health support staff to familiarise them with PTD and increased their skills and competences to recognise and treat individuals with traumatic disorders through proper strategies for de-escalating stressful interactions.