Community-Based Initiatives
TANDEMplus: Mobile Crisis Support and Social Network Development – Belgium
‘TANDEMplus’ is a small mobile crisis service that supports people during, and shortly after, they experience a crisis. A key aim of TANDEMplus is to help a person to ‘(re)activate her/his local support network’ (Submission 7). This includes identifying the kind of support that the person would...
Respite Houses
Crisis or respite houses tend to offer a smaller scale residential alternative for people in crisis, sometimes designed for specific groups, including women, minority ethnic groups and homeless people (see Gooding et al., 2018, pp.67-77). Such alternatives to hospitalisation may be staffed...
Personal Ombud Programme – Sweden
In 1995, the Swedish Personal Ombudsman Programme (‘Personligt Ombud Skåne’ or ‘PO’) was founded by persons with psychosocial disabilities as a ‘User-controlled Service with Personal Agents’ (Submission 27). This form of personal assistance involves facilitating decision-making, including by...
Open Dialogue Model – Finland and Internationally
The 'Open Dialogue Approach to Acute Psychosis' is a practice developed in Finland in which care decisions are made in the presence of the individual and his or her wider networks. The practice is presented as an alternative to hospital, particularly where it is practiced as home or...
Mental Health Mobile Units – Greece
In Greece, Mental Health Mobile Units aim to reduce involuntary hospital admissions by working to keep individuals, particularly those in remote and rural areas, connected to their family and communities (Submission 27). According to Mental Health Europe (Mental Health Europe, 2019, p.7): From...
Hugarafl – Iceland
Hugarafl (which roughly translates as ‘Mindpower’) is a non-profit, peer-run, non-government organisation in operation in Reykjavík since 2003 (Submission 22). According to its website: Hugarafl [translation: Mindpower] is an Icelandic peer run NGO founded in the year 2003 by individuals with a...
Family Group Conferencing – The Netherlands
Family Group Conferencing is a ‘“family-driven” decision-making model and social network strategy’ (Schout, Meijer, et al., 2017). In the Netherlands, where it was developed for the mental health context, a Family Group Conference is called an Eigen Kracht-conference. This translation emphasises...
Community mental health initiative – Novara, Italy
In the Northern Italian city of Novara, a mobile support program was developed by the South Unit Area to assist people in mental health crisis in their own home, including those who have been just discharged from a psychiatric ward. The program has reportedly produced relatively low rates of...
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