Welcome to the EPA 2022 Interactive Programme 

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Within the IT4Anxiety project, the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) for research and training in mental health of Lille, is the leader of the work package “identification of needs among the different actors in the mental health field”. The complexity of our object of study - the use of new technologies for people’s mental health - requires undertaking a multi-disciplinary approach, considering both the clinical and the socio-anthropological aspects. A mixed-methods research conducted with pepole people experiencing anxiety, carers and professionnals, aims to describe the use, acceptability and needs of the different categories of actors concerned by the use of new technologies.

The quantitative part is a cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study. A anonymous self-administered questionnaire is distributed online and in hard copy in the 5 partner countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK) to the three study populations. It consists of access to digital tools or technological solutions, experience related to these and the contribution and perceived effect of users to e-mental health related projects. The qualitative approach includes a detailed understanding of the potential therapeutic and socio-anthropological changes that these tools can bring. It explores : description of used technologies, the representations and emerging needs in relation to the management of anxiety and the improvement of mental health ; the clinical impact perceived by all stakeholders and the implementation of new ways of living with the tools.

This international research will enable a comparative study to be carried out on the dynamics of appropriation of these e-(mental) health devices in different countries of the North-Western European region.

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Technological innovations give new perspectives in many fields, including health. It was in this context that the IT4Anxiety project was born in 2019 bringing together mental health professionals and start-ups, but also universities, research centres, higher education establishments and public authorities from the North-West Region of Europe.

The project is challenging our ability, as partners, to gather stakeholders from different background, medical and non-medical field, in order to support the implementation and co-conception of innovative solutions with the objective of reducing the anxiety of mental health service users.

During the four years of project implementation (2019-2023), the stakeholders will have opportunities to work with the end-users, expecting to address the needs of around 3,000 mental health service users suffering from anxiety. The fifteen start-up involved in the project activities will be recruited through hackathons and calls based on identified needs. They will join the project in order to test and improve their solutions. This will create opportunities to connect the start-ups with the medical world, research codes and procedures and to give them a new perspective in the understanding of their targeted market segment.

Furthermore, almost a thousand mental health professionals will be trained in e-mental health, benefiting from our training modules and an e-mental health job profile will be designed and implemented in our partner hospitals in Belgium and in Germany.

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The Interreg IT4Anxiety Project gives birth to training modules in digital health.

The European Interreg IT4Anxiety project, led by the CNP St-Martin, is launching a new range of training modules in digital health awareness at the Haute Ecole de la Province de Namur, the University of Applied Sciences (HEPN).

Electronic medical records, teleconsultation, mobile applications, virtual reality... Digital tools are already part of the daily life of workers in the health sector. However, until now, no curriculum has included appropriate training to enable caregivers to acquire the fundamental knowledge needed to use digital tools effectively in their professional practice.

Thanks to the expertise and support of its various partners in the IT4Anxiety project, the Haute Ecole de la Province de Namur will provide digital health awareness training starting in 2022. These training modules will be provided as part of the in-situ training of caregivers and are already being tested in the academic training of future nurses.

In addition to discovering the potential of new technologies in the health field, health professionals and future professionals will learn to identify the appropriate use of these tools, to deploy them and to use them in their profession, in a respectful and caring relationship with a critical eye.

The structure of the courses, the assessment and the feedback from the HEPN will form the basis for an international deployment of this training by the German, French, Dutch and English partners of the IT4Anxiety project.