Recovery for all in the community; position paper on principles and key elements of community-based mental health care

Abstract

Background: Service providers throughout Europe have identified the need to define how high-quality communitybased mental health care looks to organize their own services and to inform governments, commissioners and funders. In 2016, representatives of mental health care service providers, networks, umbrella organizations and knowledge institutes in Europe came together to establish the European Community Mental Health Services Provider (EUCOMS) Network. This network developed a shared vision on the principles and key elements of community mental health care in different contexts. The result is a comprehensive consensus paper, of which this position paper is an outline. With this paper the network wants to contribute to the discussion on how to improve structures in mental healthcare, and to narrow the gap between evidence, policy and practice in Europe. Main text: The development of the consensus paper started with an expert workshop in April 2016. An assigned writing group representing the workshop participants built upon the outcomes of this meeting and developed the consensus paper with the input from 100 European counterparts through two additional work groups, and two structured feedback rounds via email. High quality community-based mental health care: 1) protects human rights; 2) has a public health focus; 3) supports service users in their recovery journey; 4) makes use of effective interventions based on evidence and client goals; 5) promotes a wide network of support in the community and; 6) makes use of peer expertise in service design and delivery. Each principle is illustrated with good practices from European service providers that are members of the EUCOMS Network. Conclusions: Discussion among EUCOMS network members resulted in a blueprint for a regional model of integrated mental health care based upon six principles.

Can participatory video reduce mental illness stigma? Results from a Canadian action-research study of feasibility and impact

“…These results have policy implications. As stated, stigma reduction has become a key target for mental health policy in various jurisdictions across the world [11,14]. In Canada, the most-recent 'Mental Health Strategy for Canada' states that national priority 1.1 must be to 'increase awareness and reduce stigma' [15].…”

“…Other research indicates that such views are often held by important decision-makers including employers, journalists and even health care providers [5,9,10]. Such community stigma (also known as external stigma or public stigma) often leads to discrimination and exclusion for people with SMI and is a prominent obstacle towards recovery [6,11,12]. It can also lead to damaging self-stigma among people with mental illness [13].…”

Recovery in Supported Accommodations: A Scoping Review and Synthesis of Interventions for People with Severe Mental Illness

“…Most people with severe mental health problems can recover and live in the community with or without support (Keet et al 2019). A relatively small group of people (10-20%) has long-term, severe and complex needs but consumes 25-50% of the mental health and social care budget (Killaspy et al 2016).…”

The mechanisms and processes of connection: developing a causal chain model capturing impacts of receiving recorded mental health recovery narratives

“…Contemporary understandings of recovery extend the clinical focus on symptomatic remission to incorporate personal understanding about the processes of recovery, in which individuals are experts of their own lived experiences [1,2]. Consistent with national [3][4][5]and international [6] mental health policy, recovery is defined as a personal process of living with or without the mental health concerns [7], which includes elements of connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment [8].…”