Promoting Mental Health Minimising Mental llness and Integrating through Education: Development of the Program in the field of Alcohol and Drug Use and Addiction

Concept of health promotion is becoming increasingly visible in the Slovenian as well as in European political and social life. The author will present the role of Faculty of social work (Slovenia) had in European project... [ view full abstract ]

Concept of health promotion is becoming increasingly visible in the Slovenian as well as in European political and social life. The author will present the role of Faculty of social work (Slovenia) had in European project called PROMISE, which aimed to build upon the achievement of previous relevant public mental health promotion projects an uniform guidelines for the training of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and social workers. The aim of the guidelines is to provide a series of recommendations in the form of best practice indicators to help professionals and communities to develop and evaluate quality training programmes for professionals in the area of alcohol and drug use and addiction prevention in Europe and it was a base for preparation of the Resource Kit, training material and module training. Guidelines were created through three stages of research: evaluation of the key European documents, revive of the current state on promotion and prevention, case study and final external evaluation. On the base of collected information we identified key categories, which can be used as sensitivity topics for development training guidelines. Added value was supplied through collaboration with European level health and social service professional bodies, university networks, civil society organizations and non-traditional actors (users) to identify gapes in existing training programs.

Based on analysis of different types of European policies, as well as exploring the gaps in existing training programs and in the cooperation with scientific comity, we developed Training Guidelines on alcohol and drug use and addiction. The presentation will outline the steps performed in the process where the main message is this need for continues education of professionals.