25/11/2008 - Submitted by: Tilia Bousios
Publisher: Managing Editor, Richard Wynne, Work Research Centre
Distribution Date: 25/11/2008
Each year ProMenPol runs a half-day policy workshop in Brussels that follows the Annual Practitioners Conference. This years Policy Workshop is the second of three annual forums which will be run during the lifetime of the project. It aims to inform policy makers about the results of the Practitioners Conference, which was successfully completed in Berlin on 19th and 20th of June 2008, and about the progress of ProMenPol. We will also discuss the future of the database of mental health promotion tools. Furthermore, we will explore ways in which the mental health promotion agenda can be pushed forward and the consequences of the recently launched European Mental Health Pact. It is intended that the workshop will also act as a forum between National and European policy makers and practitioners representatives so that communication about the differing needs of these groups can be enhanced. The workshop allows for mutual exchange of information concerning positive mental health between experts and for timely feedback to those responsible for designing services and policies.
The annual ProMenPol Policy Workshop will take place on the 11th of December 2008 from 11am to 3pm in Brussels in the premises of KoWi, the EU Liaison Office of the German Research Organisations. For further information, please have refer to the ProMenPol website. This policy workshop is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please contact Rena Hohenstein.
We are very pleased that 62 organisations all over Europe have already expressed their interest in conducting a ProMenPol Field Trial. The majority of these organisations will contribute to the ProMenPol project by undertaking a usability test of the online toolkit (Field Trial Type I). But there are also a reasonable number of other field trials types, i.e. implementing a mental health promotion and protection tool in practice (Field Trial Type II) and reporting on a tool which is already in use by the organisation (Field Trial Type III).
Because the project will amend the online database and the toolkit early by next year many usability tests already reached our offices. Therefore we want to take the opportunity to thank all respondents who have completed a field trial.
From the first Field Trial Type I responses we already have some indication that the online toolkit is of great use for practitioners. Nevertheless, practitioners have also reported some possibilities to improve it. This information is an essential source for us in improving the database and toolkit and it will give us the ability to better fit these ProMenPol tools to the practical needs of users.
In addition, we have been informed that Field Trial Types II and III are already preparing their mental health promotion activities and contributions to the ProMenPol project. We have already received information from a number of field trial sites and we expect that the responses will increase in the coming weeks.
Field Trials Type II and III can undertake their actions during 2009 and ProMenPol will collect the documentation and responses from these as late as September 2009. So there is plenty of time to register your interest in taking part in one of these filed trials.
For Type II Field Trials you first have to give a short description of the project that you propose to undertake and you will then be asked to fill in an ethics questionnaire which will be reviewed by the ProMenPol ethical sub-committee. After our OK you can start with the implementation of the tool. For Type III Field Trials it is only necessary to give us retrospective feedback of your finished mental health promotion action.
If you have not expressed your interest in undertaking a Field Trial yet, we are very happy to receive further expressions of interest. If you are interested in taking part please fill in the online available expression of interest form and send an e-mail to Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Red Cross. For more detailed information about field trials please contact us or visit our homepage but we the entire ProMenPol team is also happy to answer your questions.
If you wish to undertake a field trial, you will receive support from the Project Team in relation to the implementation of a project and also in relation to its evaluation. For more information, e-mail Gert Lang of the Research Institute of the Viennese Red Cross and ask for the “Expression of Interest” Form. For more detailed information about the field trials please visit our homepage. There is also a marketing flyer available.