ACTitude: Improvisation techniques training program for mental health professionals to empower patients with psychiatric diagnose to act against emotional and verbal violence Erasmus Project

Project Title

ACTitude: Improvisation techniques training program for mental health professionals to empower patients with psychiatric diagnose to act against emotional and verbal violence

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Although people most often associate abuse with physical violence, it can come in many different forms including verbal abuse, a type of emotional abuse in which a person uses words, body language, or behavior to cause emotional pain or distress to another person. Although it is not physical and does not leave visible bruises, it is just as damaging and leaves emotional scars in the person subject to it.

Persons suffering from mental illness (PSMI) are one of the collectives most exposed and, at the same time most vulnerable, to open demonstrations of social rejection expressed verbally such as disrespectful comments, insults and mockery. Offenses may come from passers-by, co-workers, neighbors, and sometimes even from family members and persons considered friends. The victims of abuse think of themselves as of a lesser person and, most of the time, they accept the role of the victim and adopt a passive attitude given that they don’t know how to stop the abuse. But the consequences of the offense are not only hurt feelings and miserable self-esteem; they go as far as to constitute the primary obstacles to social inclusion which, in turn, is essential to advance in the recovery process.

There is a latent need for professional tools to conduct effective interventions with the clients of mental health services to (a) empower the latter to act in situations of social and community violence, (b) mitigate the effects that continuous rejection, disrespect, and mockery have over the persons with severe and prolonged mental illness. This is why the ACTitude project’s angular objective is to develop an innovative methodology based on improvisation techniques (Improv) for professional use that will help to capacitate individuals suffering from mental disorders to confront demonstrations of social rejection in form of verbal abuse and mockery to which they are being exposed so often in their day-to-day lives. In contrast to traditional theatre, Improv is a method based on natural actions that surge during the performance. In Improv, there are no scripts- the latter are being created on the go through the interaction between the persons involved in the performance.

ACTitude Improv based training program will provide the professionals working with the target group with a tailor-made intervention process to empower the persons with mental illness to recognize when they are being subject to verbal abuse, to stand up for themselves, and respond to the offenders in real time in order to cut short the abuse. The training program using elements of the 3rd generation psychological therapies and techniques applied in improvisational theatre will be created jointly by the team of psychologists and researchers from the Dept. of Psychology of the University of Maribor (UM) and a transnational team of expert performers and trainers specialized in improvisation techniques (Improv) from IMPRO Valladolid (Spain), Clamotta (Germany) and Theatre Studies Department of the University of Athens (Greece). During 3 months, the Improv experts will train, in weekly face to face sessions, 45 educators and social professionals working at partner organizations providing mental health services- INTRAS (Spain), CJD (Germany) and EDRA (Athens)- in the framework of the transnational pedagogical test. In the second stage of the testing, during 2 months, the mental health professionals trained will put in practice the tailor-made Improv based method directly with a group of 24 service users suffering from mental illness, under the guidance of the Improv professionals and supervision of the psychologists expert in the regulation of emotions and emotional violence. The finalized training materials will be available on the ACTitude e-learning platform in 5 languages.

Another angular result of ACTitude project will be the educational volume ATLAS OF EMOTIONS: MENTAL ILLNESS, STIGMA AND EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE developed. The heart and the core content of the ATLAS will be the most frequent and representative emotions experienced by persons with severe and prolonged mental illness (PWMI) as a collective subject to stigmatizing beliefs and non-physical violence coming from the society. Every single emotion will be explained comprehensively in both, words and images, serving as a great working tool for MHP to approach the world of emotions with their patients. Taking advantage of its visual character the partners will promote the Atlas as an educational tool for the general public in order to learn the emotions that accompany the persons who suffer from mental illness- emotions that are often provoked by stigmatizing and discriminatory attitudes towards this collective.

The ACTitude training program, with all its materials and tools, will be designed with special focus on its transferability in different national contexts, with views to its further use by social and education service providers Europewide.

Project Website

http://actitude-project.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 190344 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACION INTRAS & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Firma Hahn, Thiel & Thiel GbR
• UNIVERZA V MARIBORU
• KINONIKES SINETERISTIKES DRASTIRIOTITES EFPATHON OMADON
• CHRISTLICHES JUGENDDORFWERK DEUTSCHLANDS GEMEINNUTZIGER EV (CJD)
• ETHNIKO KAI KAPODISTRIAKO PANEPISTIMIO ATHINON
• ASOCIACION CULTURAL ARTISTICO EDUCATIVA TEATRO DE IMPROVISACION – IMPROVA
• SMASHING TIMES THEATRE COMPANY LIMITED