How to support young people with mental health needs in accessing education, vocational training and employment? What do young people with mental health needs, their caregivers, but also the mental health professionals who assist them and the career counsellors they interface with need in order to enable better integration into education and employment?
To better understand the matter, we have now started the third phase of project Work4Psy, which include a research through Questionnaires on training needs; we have prepared 4 questionnaires addressed to:
- People with mental health needs;
- Mental Health Professionals (Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Psychoanalysts, Psychiatric Nurses, Psychotherapists, Mental Health Counsellors, Social Workers, Family and Marriage Counsellors);
- Career counsellors (Guidance counsellors, Educators, Trainers);
- Informal carers.
This research will be used by the project partners to elaborate a European Work and Education Integration Curriculum for MH NEETs that responds to the actual needs of all categories involved.
The project Work4Psy – An innovative model for career counselling services to Mental Health NEETs intends to do so by creating innovative and specific tools for educational and vocational counselling and guidance, thus supporting the work of mental health professionals, career counsellors and informal carers.
The aim of Work4Psy is to initiate not only personal development pathways for people with mental health needs but also a process of collective change, of the professions and relationships that revolve around the mental health individual to jointly address their difficulties of living in a society that imposes an ableist standard of normality, making those who do not meet that standard invisible and isolated.
In the first phase of the project, we developed and published a Report on the educational and work integration of people with Mental Health needs in Italy, Germany, Greece and Poland, on the role of informal carers, mental health professionals and career counsellors.
The Report was followed by a research through Focus Groups on 4 main topics:
- Significance of work and career for people with mental health needs,
- Existing career services,
- Difficulties encountered,
- Necessary assistance.
Focus Groups revealed that although work is perceived as a pathway to self-development, independence and recovery, people with mental health needs are often not offered adequate support: career guidance services are mostly unknown and poorly adapted to the needs of people with mental health problems; furthermore, the various support services do not talk to each other, frustrating the user and making them dependent on the support of others. There is also the problem of social stigma, coming from both employers and colleagues, which fuels prejudices about the abilities and reliability of workers with mental health needs and makes the labour market much more closed. What recovery is therefore possible if the individual is prevented from being autonomous, integrated and performing a work function?
All resources and tools will be available free of charge at www.work4psy.eu.
For more information about the project, please contact Alessia Valenti, alessia.valenti@cesie.org.
About the project
Work4Psy – An innovative model for career counselling services to Mental Health NEETs is cofunded by Erasmus+ – KA2 – Strategic Partnerships in the field of vocational education and training.
Partners
- University of Applied Labour Studies of the Federal Employment Agency (HdBA) (Germany, coordinator)
- PEPSAEE PANHELLENIC UNION FOR THE PSYCHOSOCIAL REHAB (Greece)
- CESIE (Italy)
- POMOST (Poland)
- VsI “eMundus” (Lithuania)
For further information
Read more about Work4Psy and see the project website.
Contact Alessia Valenti: alessia.valenti@cesie.org.
