THIS SYMPOSIUM AIMS TO OUTLINE INNOVATIVE APPROACHES IN PREVENTING SOCIAL AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG THE YOUNGER GENERATION OF EUROPE. Building on values from human rights movements, social justice and volunteer groups, the symposium proposes a stronger collaboration between community psychology networks(ecpa) and traditional psychology associations(efpa).
The two presentations from Efpa SC will describe the role of community psychology working with
cross disciplinary problems from their respective countries. Together with the two presentations from Ecpa we hope to illustrate the advantages of such a collaborative approach. A COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ON PREVENTION TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THE DIFFERENT CONTEXTUAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS, AND SEEKS TO EMPOWER THOSE GROUPS WHO ARE MOST VULNERABLE TO DEVELOP PROBLEMS.
This is called for and needed in order to address and attempt to solve the most urgent issues of our time. The problems European countries face are cross border problems, migration, climate control and social inequality, and therefore are common to all European countries. But they are also cross discipline problems by nature, and can only be adressed by using multi disciplinary strategies.
If we are successful in This approach gives hope that Community Psychology will become more relevant in the future Europe.
Bernd Roehrle (Germany)will give a meta-meta-analysis on mental health promotion and prevention, presenting international research with results from prevention programs. These results are discussed with respect to potential strategies for prevention of mental disorders.
Our Portugese colleague Maria Vargaz Moniz will present a critical review on the national drug prevention program in her country. She will discuss this in light of the work done on the de institutionalization reforms within the mental health care.
Grethe Grung (Norway) will give an overview of the Introductory Program(2 years)
for refugees given a residence permit. What are the success factors regarding integration in the Community and how has the program developed since the reforms of 2019?
Nicholas Carr(UK) will describe the new European Prevention Network, and the structure of this model. This was formed as a direct result from the Efpa Ga in Moscow 2019.
At the 2019 European Congress of psychology in Moscow, the European Federation of Psychology Associatons asked their member associations to form new cross board(fields of psychology) networks. The SC on CP was asked to bring forward proposals to the EC, and a Prevention Network was proposed.
Some years before this, we had already began a historic collaboration between a Community Psychology Association (ECPA) and the dominant European Federation of Psychologist Associations (EFPA), organizing more than 300.000 registered professional psychologists. This short history started in Istanbul 2011, as an EFPA Task Force, and continued in Stockholm 2013 with the Standing Committee.
The Standing Committee has gathered information about ongoing CP research, training and practice from more than 30 European Universities. We have provided a description of the Professional Competencies and an overview of definitions of CP as basis for these competencies. The Ecpa was an informal network which developed into a formal Community Psychology Association in 2006. Today the association has 200 members, but is counting approx. 1000 colleagues connected in different ways.
We have ambitions to arrive at a broader description of a prevention competence model, and develop guidelines for training in CP prevention across Europe.