"<< 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."