Serious mental illnesses are associated with reduced educational attainment (Kessler, Foster, Saunders, & Stang, 1995), in part due to their early age of onset and the gradual development of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (Goulding, Chien, & Compton, 2010), which are often preceded by a decline in school performance (van Oel et al., 2002). The majority of young people with severe mental health disorders have experienced significant educational interruptions due to their illness. The onset of most psychiatric difficulties occurs between the ages of 12 and 24 (Kessler et al. 2005; Patel et al. 2007). This is a time when many young people are completing their education, making early career choices and establishing relationships (Patel et al. 2007). As teachers working with students who have severe mental health difficulties, we see firsthand the lack of educational supports available for our students. Many have been out of school for up to two years and feel they are unable to reintegrate. Linn Dara School in Dublin, Belfast Hospital School and Lycee Pierre Daguet, France, all face the same challenges while trying to address the educational needs of our students. Linn Dara School will coordinate and manage the project. Linn Dara School provides education to young people admitted to the Linn Dara Inpatient Unit and the Linn Dara Adolescent Day Programme in Dublin. Teachers work as members of the multidisciplinary teams. In late 2015, there will be 32 inpatient beds across three units and 18 day patient spaces in two further units which will be over 40% of national provision. Belfast Hospital School established a pilot project at the Westcourt Centre for young people with school based anxiety and mental health difficulties (TOPS Project). There have 26 young people on their roll. The purpose is to reintegrate young people back to school or further education. They work continuously with Specialist CAMHS teams of each enrolled student.Lycée Pierre Daguet in France has 105 students. Teachers work as part of a multidisciplinary team with mental health professionals. Students have severe mental health disorders and are aged between 15 and 22 years. The goal of the school is to maintain academic identity throughout the treatment of the mental illness. Helping them finding back a place in society and regaining confidence is their priority. All of our students require and deserve a specialised education programme to allow them to return to education while addressing their educational and medical needs. This does not exist for our students currently but it does exist internationally. Australia and New Zealand have specifically designed educational programmes for students who have severe mental health difficulties. While visiting and observing these already established programmes within the field of mental health education, each partner will work collaboratively to develop an individual educational programme suitable to meet the needs of our students which cannot be met in a mainstream setting. We will involve members of multidisciplinary teams, medical staff and other education staff in researching, exploring and examining the programmes already in place internationally. We will collaborate with this group as well as our students, parents, local schools and policy makers in shaping and devising our programmes.This results of this project will be disseminated through an international conference entitled 'The Educational Needs of Young People with Severe Mental Health Difficulties' where we will bring together key international stake holders in the field of education to discuss the issues surrounding the education of young people with severe mental health difficulties as well as the education programmes which have been developed by each of the partner. A project website will be developed and will outline the progress of the project as well as details about each educational programme.It is envisaged that this project will provide an opportunity for networking and support for staff working within the mental health sector through forums on the website as well as at the conference.The successful completion of this project and development of these educational programmes has the potential to change the lives of students who may have been forgotten in education previously. The project provides us with an opportunity to ensure policy dictates and provides for students with severe mental health difficulties.

"Backround and objectives:Pupils with special needs are often extremely vulnerable when trying to build realistic picture of themselves and the world around them. Media affects them in multisensory ways. Without proper guidance, strong resilience and much needed multiliteracy skills it can lead to many types of challenges and put these pupils in a risk of marginalization and seclusion. With the help of project RISE we wanted to empower hospitalized pupils and help them become true subjects of their own lives and future. We wanted to make sure that our SEN pupils have the means and skills to exploit all the opportunities they will possibly have and to participate fully, but sustainably in future society.With this project we hoped to add courage of our pupils to communicate with others in similar circumstances with foreign languages. We provided various platforms to raise intercultural awareness and build bridges between European nations. During this project our pupils were able to get much needed peer support and make new friends. The main goal of this project for the pupils was to gain more resilience to lead a happier and fuller future life. Participants:Tierna School's Hospital School Unit in Oulu, Finland is a special school that provides education for the compulsory education aged children who are treated in Oulu University Hospital for both somatic and/or psychiatric causes. Pupils come from a large geographical area in Northern Finland.ZSO Nr 9 in Gdansk, Poland is a school at psychiatric hospital and provides education, therapy and other activities for children and youth suffering different mental diseases.Linn Dara School in Dublin, Ireland is a school based in an Inpatient unit of child and adolescent mental health unit. They also work in the connecting day hospital programme. They are a designated special school in the category of Severe Emotional Behavioural Disturbance. Their students present with various mental health difficulties.Children Hospital School of Istituto Comprensivo ""Giacomo Ferrari"" in Parma, Italy is made of a primary and a junior secondary school for pupils who are unable to attend school because of chronic, acute or other medical health needs. Activities and methods:Pupils worked with themes of multiliteracy and resilience in various practices. They became familiar with the goals of United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and learned media criticism, the correct use of social media and netiquette. They explored experiential learning methods by processing stories in multiliteracy ways, and producing games, stories and art for their peers.Staff training events were organized as workshops for learning new methods and approaches regarding multiliteracy and resilience skills. In order to be able to use new learning methods with pupils the teachers went through the same experiential learning process themselves. Results and impact:All staff from each partner school had possibilities to build their professional skills through this project. Not every staff member felt they were fluent with English language, ICT skills or even mastering all the multiliteracy skills needed themselves. During the project we learned different kinds of methods and ways to tackle various obstacles which are common to our SEN pupils. Emphasis being on the resilience strengthening working methods was expected to promote the prevention of social exclusion.We exchanged ideas and opinions and were able to compare our school systems, and based on the good practices we shared, we can continue developing our schools.The work well-being was seen rising and we were able to further develop our team teaching and planning skills through this project. During the visits we added our knowledge of partner countries and their cultures. Longer term benefits:Pupils in hospital schools will feel less isolated through finding out that there are pupils with similar experiences and challenges also in other countries. Sharing potential solutions to their problems, when exchanging experiences with each other, has had and will have positive effects on their self-esteem and help strengthen their resilience.Exchanging ideas and experiences with European colleagues and finding out the differences as well as the similarities in different countries' schooling systems has broadened staff's perspective and helped develop our teaching skills. The aim was to create better possibilities for disadvantaged children and youth to gain greater sense of belonging into European cultural heritage and its multicultural community. Having possibilities to visit and work with each other in their schools and by this improve both teachers' and students' confidence about working together across languages and cultures has given us tools and methods for future teaching and development work. This also gives the staff better possibilities in developing a greater sense of belonging into European teaching community."