Integrated care pathway for promoting social inclusion and quality of life of people with Mental Health disorders

Summary

Personalization is a key element of healthcare policy, as underlined by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is built on the conception of a health care system centered on human principles and rights, such as equity, participation, self-determination, and non-discrimination. This means treating patients from a person-centered perspective, listening to their needs, and recognizing their abilities and freedom to choose for their own health. A person-centered approach will enable different sectors to work together, using available resources and different competencies, to meet person’s needs.

The task will help participating partners in defining and implementing integrated care pathways for people with mental disorders within their countries and produce recommendations to promote health and social integration. Public policies, different funding sources, health, educational and social services, various professional resources, etc. will collaborate in close integration and partnership. Objective of this synergic intervention is the recovery and full inclusion in the community of people with mental health disorders. Through the innovative methodology of the personal health budget, health and social services work together to provide integrated interventions in the following four areas: health, housing, job placement, affectivity/sociality/life and relational skills. Each person is accompanied through a tailored individual project, designed according to his/her specific needs and preferences and using available public/personal/private resources. The individual’s personal empowerment is ensured by his/her full involvement and consent at every stage of the negotiation and decision-making process.

The availability or absence of economical/material (i.e. house, income, pension, salary, annuity…) and informal (diplomas, supporting family, social network, personal skills….) resources is considered in defining the person’s needs and personal health budget. The latter is defined as the set of resources available from the individual and his/her context and the list of resources/interventions that integrated services ensure or provide during the personalised project. The project is monitored and evaluated periodically and updated accordingly.

During the task, data and information concerning public policy and mental health services’ organization will be collected from participating countries and analysed. People with lived experiences will be actively included in the multidisciplinary team evaluating data collected and defining the key components of the integrated health-social care pathway that will be implemented in some MS. The personal health budget has been tested so far in different countries, including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Austria, France, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and the United States, with different types of programs, varying from inclusion criteria related to commissioned services or the person’s degree of choice. The main goal of most programs was to promote autonomy and independent living, whereas other programs focused more on improving the caregiver’s system of care.

The subtasks are:

The task 5.4 will work in close collaboration with task 5.3 to support the implementation of this integrated approach, through the active involvement of different sectors of the Public Health, Social and Educational System. Project partners will transfer the experience and the knowledge gained to other Member States, through these 4 main outcomes:

  • Knowledge exchange report (D.5.4.1);
  • Definition of the ICP (D.5.4.2) focusing on vulnerable people;
  • Guidelines and the training material (D.5.4.3) focused on Mental health professionals;
  • Policy recommendations (D.5.4.4) for National policymakers.