<< Objectives >>The project aims to provide adequate training to- school staff and especially teachers in primary/secondary education on how to accommodate STICORDI teaching approaches for children with disabilities; and on how to specifically accommodate for children with dyslexia;- parents on how to specifically accommodate for children with dyslexia when studying at home (doing homework) or following online education.We also aim to lobby policy makers by targeting ministries of education.<< Implementation >>As project we will:- develop/pilot STICORDI measures adapted from best practices in Belgium and transfer them to Bulgaria and Turkey through customisation and adaptation to the local realities;- develop/pilot training manuals for school staff/teachers from primary/secondary education how to apply STICORDI measures, and how to address students with dyslexia;- develop/pilot training manuals for parents how to overcome current barriers/challenges with children with dyslexia studying from home.<< Results >>White papers towards policy makers to strengthen inclusive education and provide adequate training to school staff in primary and secondary education;A dedicated manual with STICORDI measures for schools in EN, BG, TR;A dyslexia manual for school teachers in primary and secondary education in EN, BG, TR;A dyslexia manual for parents of children with dyslexia in EN, BG, TR.All the above will be supported by an online and mobile (iOS, Android) multilingual training platform.

PURPOSE:Dementia is a decline in mental ability that usually progresses slowly, in which memory, thinking, and judgement are impaired, and personality may deteriorate. It usually develops slowly, and affects mainly those aged over 60. It is one of the most important causes of disability in the elderly in Spain, Bulgaria and Turkey (source; World Health Organisation) with the increasing proportion of the elderly in many populations, the number of dementia patients will rise also (expected to raise with 12% in the next 10 years in Spain where around 818,347 people are affected - source https://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Policy-in-Practice2/Country-comparisons/2013-The-prevalence-of-dementia-in-Europe/Spain; 20% in the next 10 years - source for Bulgaria: https://alzheimer-bg.org/dementia/research/, source for Turkey - https://www.titck.gov.tr). The most common causes of dementia in EU are Alzheimer's disease (about 50-70% of cases), the successive strokes which lead to multi-infarct dementia (about 30%); other causes are Pick's disease, Binswanger's diseases, Lewy-Body dementia and others.It is clear there that a big burden for the families is to support their family member with dementia. Especially for the adult population this is a huge stressful moment especially taking into consideration that there is no enough information available towards the behavioural and attitudinal challenges which the living with a person with dementia caused. In addition, there are no existing non-formal trainings on that topic which presents in an understandable way the strategies and tips that could support the adult generation into the process of supporting their family member with a dementia. Caring for a person with dementia can be a devastating task. That person may be a parent or grandparent or a family relative (uncle, aunt etc.) who has been known and respected and it is difficult watching the deterioration. In the later stages there may be physical problems, including the indignity of incontinence. The person may seem most ungrateful and even aggressive and this can be hurtful for the person who is supporting him (if a caregiver is not involved). Usually the caring person (in many cases adult because other family members are working at the same time) should be prepared to react adequately in the following cases: • Cognitive impairment which is affecting: Memory, Language, Attention, Thinking, Orientation, Calculation, Problem-solving ability • Behavioural problems: Changes in personality, Changes in social behaviour, Emotional changes, Hallucinations and delusions, Aggression, Depression, Agitation • Difficulty with daily living: Dressing, Driving, Eating and Shopping.AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT: - to raise the awareness among partners countries and on EU level about the importance of provision of informal training to adult family members to understand and provide better support to their family member with dementia; - to enable the acquisition of additional key and transversal competences of adult population in a informal setting. - to provide reliable material to adult volunteering organisation who are supporting adult volunteers that care about alone elderly with dementia. - to develop online and mobile learning material which consist of proven training content that will avoid misleading information that is appearing onto internet on the topic - to decrease the social and economic burden to the families of suffering patients. SOLUTION: Therefore, the project will aim to develop the following outputs which will support the adult awareness and preparation (adult training) to support their family members with dementia: - IO1: Adult guide “How to support your family member with dementia” - IO2: Wizard style open mobile application – 24/7 offer help on solutions per specific problem - IO3: Guidance Toolkit for Adult trainers with methodological support on delivery of the DEMOER courseTARGET GROUPS: a) as learners: adults (aged 16-29) who are caring (non-formally) about their family member affected by dementia; b) as trainers: Adult trainers and educators, coordinators/managers of volunteering NGOs who are provided non-formal care services; BENEFICIARIES from the improved services: people with dementia, their families, NGOs/Unions of people with disabilities and elderly people, policy makers in the field of health and social care.TRANSFERABILITY: The outputs can become a main training material for NGOs and volunteering organisations who are supporting organisation of adult non-formal caregiving trainings.CONSORTIUM: 5 PARTNERS (ES, BG, BE CY & TR) consisting of adult training providers from Department of Psychology of Higher educational institution on tertiary level, National umbrella ogranisation of professionals working with people with disabilities, Inclusion institute and 2 consulting bodies, offering know-how and digital expertise on solutions for maintaining the brain functions.

"The core concept of this project is to establish support service, to train carers and raise awareness towards elder maltreatment. The elder maltreatment is pervasive in all countries in the European Region. It is a growing concern, and estimates suggest that at least 4 million people experience elder maltreatment in any one year in the EU Region. The full scale of the problem is not properly understood, but it has far-reaching consequences for the mental and physical well-being of tens of millions of older people and, if left unchecked, may result in their premature death. Studies show that older people with dementia and with a disability that results in increased dependence on caregivers increases the risk of elder maltreatment.Key facts:•The European Region has a rapidly ageing population.•One third of the population of the European Region will be 60 years and older in 2050.•Many more older women than older men are in poverty.•The prevalence of elder maltreatment in the community is high (about 3%) and may be as high as 25% for older people with high support needs.Perpetration is most often carried out by caregivers who are partners, offspring or other relatives, although professional health and care workers and visitors can also be perpetrators in institutions or at home. Perpetrators are more likely to have mental health problems, especially depression or a history of violence, and may suffer from substance misuse, especially alcohol abuse.Why is elder maltreatment a health and social problem?•Humanitarian – it causes great suffering to individuals or groups within a society.•Functional – it threatens the fabric of society.•Cost – it drains resources and requires societal investment.•Social justice – some older people are vulnerable and their rights should be protected.•Social norms – regarding behaviour and expectations.•Prevalence – overall, many people suffer from elder maltreatment, and special services and programmes are needed.•Burden – a cause of premature death and disability.•Response – the health and care sectors are in the front line for prevention, detection and rehabilitation.The prevalence increases among people with disabilities, cognitive impairment and dependence.To combat this phenomenon, our project aims to establish a support service framework, as well as train carers on how to recognise such maltreatment, address it and take action, and how to raise awareness in the own community, and this with special attention for those older people with disabilities.Therefore, our project focuses on supporting social workers and carers to:•recognise any elderly maltreatment in their community or among their clientele.•address it•take action•but especially also raising awareness in the communitySocial marketing, mass media awareness raising and education programmes like our project aims to develop will be used to raise awareness of the effects of maltreatment and to promote a healthy ageing approach to overcome negative stereotyping. Engaging older people in these processes will be very important.Based on the above, the project will develop and approbate the following intellectual outputs:IO1: ECVET based training curriculum and training course on ""Recognising elder abuse""IO2: Mobile training app, including good practices databaseIO3: Policy recommendation report for the improvement of governmental support towards prevention of abuse towards elderly peopleTARGET GROUPS•Social workers•Caregivers•Doctors/GPsBENEFICIARIES•Older people (with disabilities)•Family of older people•Social servicesThe partnership is composed by:P1: Local municipality from Rodopi region (among vulnerable in terms of abuse towards elderly) in BulgariaP2: National association of professionals working with elderly people and those with disabilities all over BulgariaP3: Leading clinical psychological support unit from another vulnerable region of Sliven, BulgariaP4: Inclusion institute who is training social service personnel and caregivers from Istanbul, TurkeyP5: VET training provider in the social services field from Belgium"

Infants at risk and children with neurodevelopmental delay, minor neurological dysfunction and developmental coordination disorder (5-10% of the children - Roberto González Salinas, 2013) can benefit from an early (rehabilitation) intervention/therapy. Early identification by primary care providers of developmental delays leads to early referral for evaluation and treatment. One of these interventions is the psycho-motorics one.Psychomotor education (psycho-motorics) is a pedagogic and therapeutic approach to support and aid an individual’s personal development. It is based on a holistic view of human beings that considers each individual as a unity of physical, emotional and cognitive actualities, which interact with each other and the surrounding social environment. Essentially, the method is psychotherapeutic in nature and origin. The deployment of psychomotricity by professionals was not as clearly defined as was the case for other disciplines such as physiotherapy and physical activity, and there was confusion as to which terminology was best used to describe it, as it could be seen as a discipline (motion science), as a technique (psychomotor practice) or as a synonym of bodily activity (psychomotor ability). Psychomotor education/training can exert an influence on affective, psychomotor, and cognitive areas, but it must be taken into account that affective and psychomotor areas tend to take a back seat after the end of preschool, when intellectual learning (with cognitive goals) occupies most of the school day.While the above clearly demonstrates the positive therapeutic effects, across Balkan countries and Turkey, there is an acute lack of such psycho-motorics therapy experts due to training being extremely expensive (ranging from a few 1000 euros to over 10000 euros) and being based on licensed practices. This lack of experts has an immediate impact on the number of parents and care givers who are left without any support, or have to rely on expensive psycho-motorics based experts who base themselves on “licensed spin-offs” (e.g. experts applying the Aucouturier Psychomotor Practice (APP)).Rehabilitation specialists eliminate the psychological element, which is the most important in psycho-motorics. For this particular reason the standard-trained rehabilitators often fail to find their position and meaning in terms of the way they were trained and its application.The project aims to provide a psycho-motorics training, ECVET compliant, for trainers to ensure that every (aspiring) physiotherapists, ergotherapists, psychologists, psychotherapists and pedagogue will be able to support the mental, motor, psychosocial, emotional, speech and language development of children with developmental delay. By ensuring an increasing number of psycho-motorics therapy experts, psycho-motorics expertise will be aggregated and taught across Balkan countries and Turkey. It will do so without being in conflict with any of the “licensed spin-offs” such as APP.Based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) numbers with regards to disability, about 1 in 50 children has a disability and this percentage only increased over the years. This means that in Bulgaria alone minimum 20000 children (on a total of 1 million children, 2018 figure) will be able to benefit from such psycho-motorics therapy. In Turkey this would amass to minimum 400000 children (on a total of 20 million children, 2019 figure). The potential impact of the project is therefore huge, and will offer a unique therapy training, using mobile and online technologies.IMPORTANT: Infants at risk and children with neurodevelopmental delay, minor neurological dysfunction and developmental coordination disorder will be included whereas children with a diagnose such as cerebral palsy, down syndrome, muscular dystrophia, brachial plexus palsy, spina bifida and neurometabolic diseases will be excluded.Target groups:-Physiotherapists-Ergotherapists-Psychologists-Psychotherapists-Pedagogues-Students of above disciplinesBeneficiaries of the improved provision of psychomotoric therapeutic services:-Infants at risk and children with neurodevelopmental delay, minor neurological dysfunction and developmental coordination disorder-Children with normal development (here psychomotor aims to develop the mental, motor, cognitive, etc. development)-Children with severe mental illness (generalized disorders, cognitive impairments, etc.)-Children with learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc.)-Children with emotional and behavioural disorders -Family and/or caregiver of affected childrenIntellectual outputs that will be developed to cover the above mentioned learning gap (in English, Bulgarian and Turkish languages):-IO1: ECVET compliant PSYCHOMOTORTRAINING curriculum and course material-IO2: Digital compendium of didactic training videos

"With over 19 million carers in Europe (Source: Eurocarers), their mental well being is crucial for their cared for persons, who depend heavily on carers to have an acceptable quality of life.Associations between physical and psychological health and being a caregiver are well established and therefore need our attention.MENTAP addressed therefore the core issue at stake: caregivers are at elevated risk for developing mental health disorders.Carers do face the following challenges:- Stress and worry: often feels stressed and worried, spends a lot of time thinking about their illness and the impact it is having on both of their lives. Carer may always be thinking about things they need to do as part of their role as carer, and find it hard to switch off.- Social isolation: Many people find it hard to make time to socialise or carry on with hobbies or interests. They may also feel guilty if they take time for themselves. Over time, social isolation can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.- Physical health problems: Caring can be physically demanding. If the role as carer involves lifting or carrying, they could suffer from aches and pains, particularly in your back.- Depression: The carer may find that the challenges they face while being a carer make them feel low or depressed. If they feel very frustrated or hopeless, they may also have thoughts of harming themselves or even of ending their life. They may also develop unhelpful coping strategies to dealwith these difficult feelings, such as using drugs or alcohol, or eating more or less than they need to.- Frustration and anger: They may often feel very frustrated and angry, especially if they have had to give up parts of their own life.- Low self-esteem: Being a carer can have a big impact on their self-esteem. They may feel that they are not worthy of care and attention, and that all their time should be focused on the person they care for. They may find it hard to interact socially, or feel that they are missing out on parts of having a normal life.In fact, carers often neglect their own healthcare needs and in many cases it is only a matter of time before they themselves become ill. They are at risk physically and emotionally with stress-related illnesses but it can be hard for them to admit that they are struggling. Carers are a ""critical asset"" who should be protected.MENTAP's core believe is that the psychological well-being is an important aspect for a carer in order to be able to perform their work to the highest quality (caring for people with disabilities, older people, etc.). One's psychological well-being is based on the individual's awareness of purpose andmeaning of life, the feeling for meaningful connections with other people, the awareness of self-determination and control over life, the reflections of the past and the future and the openness to own self experience, values, meanings and perspectives. Carers need assistance in this, especially asthey are prone to lack of mental well-being due to the hardships they face in their care work.Past studies (see Need analysis attached in Annex) have highlighted this mental aspect of carers, and MENTAP wants to address this by developing a dedicated curriculum, aligned with ECVET, that offers a modular training course, whereby carers can re-establish a mentally healthy lifestyle and well-being. The spillover effect of the project will be that this will also be beneficial for nurses, psychologists, etc. that are working with people with disabilities.To achieve this, MENTAP will establish following outcomes:- IO1: MENTAP curriculum and ""Train the trainers"" handbook- IO2: Coping strategies and relevant self assessment realised through interactive illustrated wizard embedded via mobile/online application- IO3: Impact and best practices methodological guidelinesThese outcomes will be developed by a team of 4 partners from 3 countries (Bulgaria, Belgium, Turkey) consisting of 1 University, 1 rehabilitation center, 1 carer consultancy body and 1 national umbrella organisation of professionals and carers of people with disabilities. All partners work closely with the carer community. The training course will be piloted in all 3 partner countries where feedback will be gathered as well as an impact assessment will be conducted."