European projects list

Mental health and addictive behaviours

Data on the health status of the population has revealed that Somalia is one of the country with the worst situation in the world. The most affected group is that of children, whose access to hospitals and medical treatments is very heterogeneous. The situation is critical also for another group, that of mentally ill people, due to the persistent presence of civil wars and instability that has affected the country for a long time. The condition of these individuals is even worsen by the traditional local culture that supports the discrimination and social isolation of mentally ill people. Therefore, the issue of mental health in this territory is rarely addressed. Given the peculiar situation of Somaliland, the project aims at supporting the promotion of equality and accessibility in the national healthcare system and at improving the wellbeing of the population. In particular, the project is addressed to two sectors of the healthcare system, that is the paediatric department and the mental health sector.

In European Member States, use of substances is a serious issue in terms of screening, management, and correlates definition. Although the prevailing methodological attitude remains quantitative in current illicit drugs research, relevant data from clinical samples and administrative databases can just provide a rough picture of incidence and prevalence of drug use problems. At its most fundamental, the role of qualitative research into illicit drug use can therefore be envisaged as a means of understanding the lived experiences and meanings of drug use from the perspectives of drug users themselves, distinguishing how drug use patterns differ by social, cultural and economic context. The project plans to build a core, and, if any, a country-level characterization of the role of social environment in pathways to recovery and socioeconomic reintegration, using original and mostly unexplored sources. In particular, the project will address key gaps in the extant research knowledge exploring by content/ thematic analyses the role of social environment in pathways to recovery and socioeconomic reintegration.

3.3. Million people are currently living in the urban area of Nairobi, among which 60,000 are street children and an additional 22,224 underage refugees (approximately 1,600 are unaccompanied minors) living in a volatile and hostile socio-political context and vulnerable to the black market and human trafficking. In spite of the launch of Kenya Vision 2030 and the considerable SDG progresses, education, HIV, socio-economic inequality, poverty and poor institutional capacity continue to undermine Kenya’s potential. Approximately 60% of the population lives in neighbourhoods characterized by a high social and health deterioration. The institutional fragility on protection is alarming. Health, education, access to clean water and sanitation remain top priorities for the Kenyan Government, who aims to achieve social inclusion and the creation of job opportunities for the most marginalized (minors, disabled, women and refugees), in order to create fair and sustainable development. A high level of socio- economic inequality, widespread poverty and weak governance continue to undermine Kenya’s progresses, highlighting the gap in income distribution with adverse effects on social welfare. Eastleigh is a large borough in Nairobi, predominantly populated by Somali, both Kenyan citizens as well as refugees. The latter make-up approximately 26,500 (of which 622 are endangered minors5) who live in isolation, unemployment and exploitation by human traffickers. Mlango Kubwa, neighbouring Eastleigh, is situated in the Starehe sub-county and merges with the large Mathare slum, characterized by overpopulation, inexistent social services, crime, unemployment, unwanted early pregnancies, gender based violence and substance abuse. Its population has been recorded to be 38,374 (of which 14% are under 14 years old), who live in deterioration. Minors are particularly vulnerable, lacking significant family support they become exposed to the dangers of a life on the streets (crime, drugs, STDs).

Children living with a mentally ill person are at a significantly greater risk to develope short and long term mental health problems or psychosocial difficulties. The lack of and need for better knowledge and training of the child care professionals is underlined by the scientific community, as well as the lack of pan-European guidelines for promoting healthy behaviour in children of mentally ill parents.

TRIP aims to develop at transnational level a prevention and harm reduction approach targeted to the combined use of licit and illicit substances (poly-drug use) by young people in recreational settings, including the finalization of theoretically and empirically validated guidelines for harm reduction and prevention project building and tools for monitoring the project effectiveness and assessing the short-term impact of the interventions delivered. TRIP also aims to further develop the experience and knowledge collected during the project “Prevention of poly-drugs addiction and reduction of drug-related harms programs for young people in recreational settings” - JLS/ DPIP/2007-2/001 where the same TRIP partnership studied 20 EU good practices in prevention and harm reduction projects in recreational settings by empirically operationalize and test the knowledge, the methodologies and the tools previously just theoretically developed.

'Drugs Overdose Kills One European Per Hour' (EPHA, 2008) - an alarming but reasonably accurate reflection of the most recent reported European figures (EMCDDA, 2009a). This simple headline however does not account for the complex nature of the overdoses reported or the various comorbidities associated with non-fatal overdoses (Warner-Smith et al, 2002). A number of the fatal overdoses reported in the European reports have occurred alongside the presence of other substances e.g. alcohol, benzodiazepines, cocaine which raises important concerns relating to the influence of poly-drug consumption on fatal overdoses (EMCDDA, 2009a). The toxicological reports add weight to the need for interventions which can address these complex needs. Individuals who take an overdose may in some instances receive health care for substance misuse. However evidence is clear that treatments themselves do not necessarily change the behaviours which put them at higher-risk of fatal overdose. ORION aims to utilise an e-health tool in an innovative approach to raise awareness of factors which influence risk overdose in a European population identified as high-risk. By developing a decision analysis model it is possible to identify personalised risks of subsequent overdose and utilise a targeted approach to provide health care to improve awareness and understanding.

The project has the general objective of expanding the knowledge-base on the available services of each geographical area, exchange experiences and good practices, creating a set of self-assessment indicators on the quality of the services, with a European scope. Besides, in Lombardia Region: testing of the set of indicators and selection of criteria for the accreditation of the regional services targeted to minors victims of violence.

The project intends to address the lack of knowledge in three European geographical areas (Regione Puglia in Italy, the Region Wallonie in Belgium and Paìs Vasco in Spain) about: on one side, the characteristics and diffusion of the phenomenon of violence against women; on the other side, and this is the main added value of the project, the characteristics of actions and services available on the surveyed territories for this target.

The consumption of drugs in recreational settings is increasing in Europe and it is becoming a growing phenomenon especially among young people. The recreational settings, and in particular the night-life ones, represent the best places where to implement actions for preventing and reducing drug use, dependence and drug-related harms. While in other prevention contexts (i.e. school) many studies and research about the effectiveness of the programmes are available, the knowledge-base is not so developed regarding prevention in recreational settings. This for two main reasons: prevention in recreational settings is at the moment only translated into experimental actions, while prevention in traditional contexts like school, peer groups or local community is not; the traditional methodologies of epidemiological research adopted for the evaluation of prevention programmes are not applicable to these kinds of action, because it is not possible to have a stable sample during time (time-series).The project proposed aimed to fill these knowledge-gaps through research and analysis actions promoted by an interdisciplinary transnational workgroup in order to improve the knowledge base and the exchange of information about the prevention and reduction of drug-related harms programs in recreational environments.