"The West Balkan Hearing Voices Network project lasted from October 2018. until October 2020. It was carried out by association Prostor from Belgrade, Serbia in partnership with Dom Turnic, Rijeka, Croatia and Kralji Ulice, Ljubljana, Slovenia, all founder members of the regional Hearing Voices Network. Hearing Voices is an alternative approach to treatment of mental health issues, and a global movement that gathers the national Networks in more then 30 countries- the International Hearing Voices Network. The main goal was to strengthen the regional Network, empower the partnership, improve the work of Hearing Voices self-help groups in each country, as well as their organizational skills, regarding educational programs, and public awareness events. Since the mental health system in Serbia in on a rather low level of development, especially regarding the human rights of psychiatric care users and the development of community services, in this project the participants from Prostor had an opportunity to improve their practice through 2 short courses delivered by the teams from Croatia and Slovenia, as well as through 1 transnational meeting held in the beginning of the project in Rijeka, on the occasion of the annual festival of mental health- „Mentalfest“.Main target group were the users of psychiatric services who participate regularly in the community services delivered by partners, and are members or facilitators of the local Hearing Voices groups. A part from them, also volunteers and professionals, community supporters took equal part as participants and trainers (7 participants from Serbia, 8 from Croatia and 8 from Slovenia). A part from them, the project had an indirect impact on all psychiatric care users in partner countries, their families, students and professionals from related fields (psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, social work, etc.), as well as institutions and CSOs in the region, through dissemination activities. The first training (C1 LTT) took place in Slovenia, since this country has a more developed approach toward the treatment of mental health problems and the socio-cultural context is more in line with human right laws in this field, comparing to the situation in Serbia especially, but Croatia as well. It took place in April 2019, 15 people participated. The main result was the exchange of experiences in organizing peer-support groups with people who hear voices or/and have other similar experiences. It gave us possibility to hear and learn from each other, since the groups develop in the similar context. An important added value was the presence of Dirk Corstens and Slobodanka Popovic (important actors in the Hearing Voices movement, trainers and psychotherapists) who enriched the training content with some new techniques and insights, as well as strategies for better group facilitation and implementation of these methods in the community mental health practice in the region.Due to Covid-19, we were prevented from carrying the C2 LTT in Rijeka as planned. We managed to organize an online training that lasted 1 day due to the restrictions in public gatherings. It took place in June 2020, 22 people participated. The Croatian team carried out a quality training, all learning goals were achieved, participants from Serbia gained new knowledge and ideas on how to run and facilitate their groups. The 1st meeting was held according to project application plan. It was organized on the occasion of ""Mentalfest"" in Rijeka, under the title ""Psychiatric user conference"", and was one of the main activities of the festival. The goal was to provide participants with an opportunity to exchange their expertise and opinion within groups and to explore individual needs and expectations of all participants regarding the activities and goals of this project.The 2nd meeting was held online due to Covid-19. Jus Skraban on behalf of Kralji Ulice, Alenka Vondra Butigan on behalf of Dom Turnic and Mina Aleksic on behalf of Prostor participated. It was held on 4th of July 2020, and it lasted one day. On this meeting we went through all activities, discussing the outcomes and results, some obstacles and how we overcame them, what we learned from our mistakes. We also discussed the effects of Covid-19 on our project and our ways of overcoming it and fulfilling the project goals.The main dissemination activities included the „Mentalfest“ in Rijeka, public lectures and press conference, as well as the promotion of the book on Hearing Voices in Ljubljana, and lecture in the Psychiatry Clinic in the Clinical Center of Serbia, in Belgrade. The promotion of the book „Nas glas“ („Our voice“), produced by all partners, and published by Prostor was promoted in all countries, the book attracted the media, so many people reported to have seen the TV appearances in all countries, these videos were also available on YouTube so even more people had the chance to hear about this project."

"The project ""Community mental health practices in ex-Yugoslavia"" is designed as a high quality regional educational program that aims at improving the existing Community Psychiatry practices in the region of ex-Yugoslavia. Members of the West Balkan Hearing Voices Network- Dom Turnic from Croatia, Hearing Voices Association Slovenia, Tavan from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Prostor from Serbia are organizations and an institution active in the field of Community Mental Health in the region, driven by the same idea that people who live with a mental health problems are the best experts for their condition- so-called ""experts by experience"", and are best suited to learn how to help themselves and how to support others in their recovery, with the support of professionals and volunteers. Together, these organizations and an institution formed the West Balkan Network 4 years ago and since then they've been working on the improvement of the Mental Health System in the region, raising awareness on the subject of human rights and social status of psychiatric care users, implementing alternative practices through education and activism. Each of these organizations/ institution developed a specific set of community services dedicated to people who live with psychiatric diagnoses, hear voices, have unusual beliefs, or other experiences considered to be out of the ordinary. In the region of ex-Yugoslavia, mental health problems are rather common among citizens, especially considering the recent history and the traumatic experiences related to many years of violence, poverty and isolation. A part from these factors, there is a great stigma surrounding the issue of mental health. Only now days it became more common for people to ask for professional help regarding their psychological state. Decades after other parts of Europe, the governments of these countries are slowly working on the reform of the Mental Health System. In these countries the predominant psychiatric treatment is strictly medical with little or no psycho-social support. After receiving the diagnoses, people are mostly rejected by their closest surrounding and by the society as a whole, and are being left completely in the mercy of the psychiatric system. The lack of quality community services is mostly noticed once these people are being released from the hospital. In many cases, there is no adequate support, there is a lack of structured programs, almost no collaboration between official psychiatry, civil society, user led organizations and families and the governments. Partner organizations from the region came to the idea to develop structured educational program tailored to fulfill the needs of each organization/ institution aiming at improving the existing practices in the field, raising them to a higher level. The fifth partner in this project, ""MET GGZ"" from the Netherlands has the role of a tutor and supervisor in this project, and will ensure quality training is delivered in the region, implementing the good practice from this European country. Being a Foundation with many years of experience and rather wide range of services, and operating in a human rights based context of Mental Health System where Community Psychiatry coexists with the official medical treatment, ""MET GGZ"" is a perfect partner for this project. The fact that ""MET GGZ"" contact person for this project- Dirk Corstens, community psychiatrist and vice chair of the Intervoice (International Hearing Voices Network) supported the establishment of the West Balkan Network 5 years ago, and since then follows the development of the services delivered by partner members, made the choice of this partner easier. The main goal of this project will be to improve the existing community services that are being delivered by partners from the region, strengthen the partnership and ensure quality exchange between psychiatric care users from the region and improvement of future educational programs. Short courses will be organized in each ex-Yugoslavian country, ""Outreach and grassroots Belgrade"", ""Support for supported living Rijeka"", ""Peer support school Ljubljana"", ""Mediation for reintegration Sarajevo"", as well as 2 transnational and coordinator meetings and public educational events. Main target groups are psychiatric care users, professionals and volunteers who deliver services in the community, supported housing assistants and users' family members. Approximately 160 people will be directly involved in the project. A part from that, this project will aim at informing and educating professionals from the field of Mental Health, students, local government representatives and other citizens, raising awareness on the importance of the subject of mental health and the human rights of the people who suffer from them. Dissemination activities will also aim at promoting Erasmus + program and support received by the European Commission and Tempus Foundation."

"<< Background >>The “Art of voices” project aims to provide mental health care practitioners with an innovative, integrative, multidisciplinary training module for providing support to mental health care users worldwide. This training integrates expressive art therapies and the Hearing Voices approach in one unique, person centered training, based on human rights regulations and real needs of final beneficiaries- people suffering from mental health issues. Mental health problems have a particularly large treatment gap in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) in South Eastern Europe where up to 50% of affected people do not receive care for their condition, according to the WHO regional EU office report from 2014. Healthcare systems in high income countries provide a combination of care, medication and psychosocial interventions which successfully helps people affected by mental health issues to lead a productive life and be integrated in society. However, LMICs have neither the funding nor enough qualified staff to provide such specialized services and unfortunately mental health care is based mostly on using psychiatric drugs. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement effective, low-cost and easily deliverable interventions to expand access to care and alleviate the suffering of these patients and their families. Medication is often not enough to solve the problem. Users become dependent on medication and often need assistance in their daily lives, from family, friends and/or professional workers. However, the implementation of alternative approaches to mental health care remains poor mainly due to lack of funding and qualified staff. To combat that, there need to be other forms of therapy available, and of course quality education programs. The curriculum and materials for expressive art therapies created within this project would enable professionals to offer that kind of service in their community.As forms of therapy other than medicinal are not widespread in Western Balkan, there are not many resources for mental health workers. From our current knowledge there is a big lack of quality training that focuses specifically on the use of art in psychiatric context, especially with the sub-category of voice hearers and people with other unusual experiences. This training will be beneficial no matter the specific educational background of participants, especially because it is not something that many people have the chance to see and study. Furthermore, the training will be available both online and offline, which helps people who are interested in the course, but could not participate otherwise because of distance, time or other issues.<< Objectives >>The main objectives of this project are to provide EU adult education actors with quality training for the use of art as support for voice hearers and other mental health care users, promote the training and attract potential participants, pilot the training in order to ensure quality, and raise awareness on the subject of mental health, human rights of voice hearers (and other mental health care users) and the potential of alternative approaches to the treatment of mental health issues.As a regional network with five years of experience in organizing trainings and other educational activities in the field of mental health, and three successfully implemented Erasmus + adult education projects, The West Balkan Hearing Voices Network is familiar with all the necessary steps in mapping the needs, planning, and creating a quality training module. This is why our goal is to create quality training based on the real needs of the target group, to find adequate ways to communicate and promote the training to the right audience. In order to ensure the quality, we will carry out evaluation and monitoring process that will provide us with a measure of overall success of the project, as well as a pilot training that will test our module and provide feedback so we can adjust it for final use.Since our main target group are professionals from psychiatric institutions and private practice, mostly psychologists, psychotherapists (especially art therapists, but also any other related modalities), social workers, occupational therapists, community supporters, volunteers and students (art, psychology, architecture, literature, theatre, social work, and other related studies), our main goal addresses the need for improvement of support delivered to psychiatric care users, especially in the region of ex-Yugoslavia, but in other European countries as well. Apart from that, we will aim at reaching the wider public and raising awareness on mental health on local, regional and international level.Since the approach of our Network is fully based on the fact that psychiatric care users are the best experts for their own experience, it underlines the importance of the qualitative change in so-called ""positions of power"", it allows them to participate actively in their recovery. This is the main reason why our approach is tailored so well to fulfill real needs and possibilities of psychiatric care users. The West Balkan Network drew the inspiration for its work from the ""Hearing Voices"" approach, first developed through active collaboration of one psychiatrist and one ""expert by experience"". Participants of the training will acquire knowledge skills and attitudes and adjust their working methods to ensure inclusive treatment and acceptance of diversity. This is why for us, as actors and initiators of change in mental health paradigm and practices of treatment in the region, the most important goal is to ensure quality training that will provide future practitioners with necessary skills and attitudes and empower them to continue with our efforts and improve the quality of services delivered to psychiatric care users, both in institutional and community setting.<< Implementation >>The activities of the “Art of voices” project include: general project coordination and preparatory activities (thorough planning, contacting stakeholders, ensuring the project implementation of the project is optimized and the risks are minimized). Preparation of resources and materials- research on existing training modules in the field of expressive art therapies and Hearing Voices approach, with support from UK partner Mind in Camden.The second phase will be dedicated to the preparation of training materials (guide, video lectures, interactive meetings with country coordinators/ experts, tests, certificates), and each partner will focus on the development of their respective training segment, focused on their field of expertise. The drafting of the final version, proofreading, visual identity, design will follow. Special care will be put in preparation of written and video materials, including the design. That will make the training material more user friendly and more interesting. Around the middle of the project, we will carry out the Transnational meeting in London, to make sure we integrate the training segments in cohesive training module and to get ready for piloting. The pilot training will take place after the Transnational meeting in Sarajevo. This training will enable us to test our module, locate possible flaws, get valuable feedback from participants, UK partners and LEAP members, and improve the module, making sure the final product is in line with the EU standards in the field of adult education. In the second half of the project, we will dedicate to the production and launching of the final version of the training module, based on thorough research, development of separate segments, piloting and evaluation.Throughout the whole project, the dissemination activities will be carried out, including: preparation and dissemination of promotional, educational material, social networks, media, creating a network of training participants and other potentially interested professionals/ supporters/ users by collecting contact details and maintaining contact, aiming to reach wider audience and raise awareness about mental health and different approaches to mental health care. Apart from that, one multiplier event in each country, aiming to broaden the outreach so more target participants have the opportunity to learn about the project. We also plan to carry out the Monitoring and evaluation of the whole project.<< Results >>The most important final result of the ""Art of voices'' project will be the final integrative, multidisciplinary training module in the use of expressive art in working with voice hearers and other mental health care users that will be available for mental health professionals, community supporters, volunteers and students that provide services to mental health care users. This training module will be available both online and offline and will be in line with the quality standards and criteria in the EU adult education in the field of mental health. The online training module will be available on the website of the West Balkan Hearing Voices Network and will consist of publication- written material, video material and interactive interviews with the authors/ trainers. Online tests and certificates will also be available and at disposal for interested training module users. The offline training will also be offered to different institutions, CSOs or individuals interested in hiring the team of authors/trainers to provide face to face training in their respective communities/ countries. This training module will be available in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovenian and English languages. The main outcome of this project will be the increased number of trained professionals/ community supporters/ students/ volunteers in the West Balkan region and the European union. The end users of this training will gain new knowledge, skills and an opportunity to change their attitude toward mental health service users, improve their practice and start implementing alternative approaches to the treatment of mental health issues, thus improving life quality of their beneficiaries and changing wrong public attitudes on the subject. We expect this project to result in an increased interest in education in alternative approaches to mental health and the improvement of both institutional and community practice due to participation in this training module."

Severe mental disorders are major health burden worldwide with a large treatment gap in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) in South Eastern Europe. Policymakers, planners and professional bodies in these countries are committed to closing the treatment gap; however they struggle to overcome basic obstacles such as funding difficulties and lack of qualified staff. IMPULSE aims to facilitate the development of effective community-based mental health care in these countries by implementing an evidence-based, easily deliverable, affordable and cost-saving intervention called DIALOG+. The intervention is a technology-assisted and based on patient-centred communication, quality of life research and solution-focused therapy. It was designed to make routine meetings between clinicians and patients structured, comprehensive and more therapeutically effective. DIALOG+ is effective in reducing clinical symptoms, improving quality of life and reducing treatment costs. IMPULSE brings together a multi-disciplinary Consortium (experts in psychiatry, psychology, implementation science, health economy and transcultural research) to conduct a mixed method, multiple case implementation study across five LMICs - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. IMPULSE will formulate contextually appropriate approach and optimise delivery of this intervention across different healthcare systems, thus exploring how local, organisational and national factors influence adoption, implementation, sustainability and economic costs. This process will generate new knowledge on how to best develop and organise community mental health care in LMICs through the implementation of effective and generic interventions. We will undertake a series of activities to widely disseminate IMPULSE results to maximise the impact of the research. This will include translating the findings into national implementation guidance and policies in each country.