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The Institute for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, I.P. (IDiPD), participated in the EU-PROMENS (European Programme for Mental Health Exchanges, Networking and Skills), financed by the European Union. This programme aims to improve the capacity of mental health professionals across Europe by 2026. After participating in the Advanced Multidisciplinary Training in Mental Health, held in Lisbon at the end of January, IDiPD participated, from 8 to 19 June, in the second phase of the Program, in an exchange in Austria.

In Austria, the reception of professionals from different European countries was organized by the the Upper Austria Prominence, a non-governmental organisation with more than 60 years of experience in the work of deinstitutionalisation of persons in a situation of psychosocial vulnerability.

The program started in Wesenufer, no. Hotel Wesenufer, situated on the bank of the Danube River in a scenario combining nature and social inclusion. This hotel is a successful model of social inclusion for people with mental and intellectual disabilities.Austrian Inclusion Prize 2016) which, through an initial skills development programme, prepares people for their inclusion in the labour market, which in this case is the hotel itself.

During the first week, in Linz, capital of Northern Austria (Upper Austria) it was possible to explore Austria's network of community mental health programmes with a systemic, multidisciplinary and human rights-based approach. The various visits made to the services, which allowed contact with clients and professionals, aimed to explore specific psychosocial characteristics and needs, worked through responses such as housing, professional training, art therapy, community support and other counseling responses and psychotherapeutic intervention. The first week ended with a lecture on Neurodiversity. Johannes Kepler University Linz.

The second week was dedicated to the observation and analysis of the conditions that allow the improvement of the quality of life of people in situations of psychosocial vulnerability, through programmes for the prevention and reintegration of people with mental disabilities. In small groups, it was possible to make visits to some services, from the city of Vienna and surroundings. Of these visits, we highlight the one that was made to the prominence reha, which develops a working model based on the fundamental principle of the Austrian social security system: "rehabilitation precedes invalidity pension". This means that the Austrian State prioritizes the recovery of the individual capacities of each person, before granting them definitive financial support for disability. The model focuses on psychosocial and therapeutic rehabilitation with an average duration of 6 weeks (inpatient or outpatient), with the main goals of professional integration, reducing costs associated with long-term care, promoting social participation, improving the quality of life and promoting an environment of safety, compassion and mindfulness (full attention), through a humanistic and person-centered approach, where each individual narrative is validated. Assuming that The whole is more than the sum of the parts., a systemic approach is used, which rejects the purely biomedical vision, and which is based on the work of multidisciplinary teams (composed of psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, social workers, nurses, nutritionists, music therapists and body therapists with a focus on dance) who design, as a team, Individual Plans focused on autonomy, in cooperation with the people themselves. This rehabilitation model applies only to the following situations: diseases of the musculoskeletal system, oncological diseases, neurological, cardiovascular, pulmonary diseases, metabolic disorders (diabetes, genetic diseases, metabolic syndromes and thyroid disorders, e.g.).

By participating in this programme, IDiPD obtained the recognition of “Ambassador for the EU PROMENS Programme” Mental Health”, contributing to the achievement of a more robust, integrated and community-based European response, addressing the challenges of mental and intellectual disabilities and tackling social inequalities.