<< Background >>The project addresses the need to build resilience among health professionals and develop individual coping strategies related to specific mental health risk factors. The extremely demanding field of work requires a tailored approach to establish a health promoting lifestyle. Training behavioural change is necessary for sustainable integration of a healthy lifestyle, this often goes along with a changing process which must be supported. To this purpose, awareness of the importance of self-care has to be raised and self-efficacy strengthened. Health professionals (such as nurses, doctors, or allied health professionals) are one of the most important contributors to keeping up a high health standard in European countries. Because of demographic developments, the demand for care will rise in Europe and health professionals will be gaining importance to cover societal needs . Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it became obvious that the working conditions of health professionals are constantly undervalued. (Poor) working conditions lead to more and more persons quitting their job, which is the opposite trend to compensating requirements arising from demographic changes. Most of these risk factors and/or riskful behaviours are related to health care systems in European countries (Ageing Europe - Statistics on Population Developments, 2021), which are framed by structural health determinants. As it is under constant discussion and development how the health care sector will be constituted in the future, health professionals have barely the chance to change their working conditions in a short time (structural health determinants). Furthermore, health professionals have to deal with arising stressful situations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic which stresses their capacities even more. It is of major importance to strengthen (personal) resilience of health professionals who are maintaining health services and are extremely relevant from a systemic point of view. Health professionals are facing physical and mental burdens (risk factors) related to their working conditions. Even though health literacy might be high, launching and keeping up health promotive behavior is aggravated due to different working times including night shifts or spontaneous actions, high workload, and emotional and mental burdens. Integrating health promotive behavior in everyday life requires personal (inner) changes, which are not easy to establish. Therefore, it is necessary to raise intrinsic motivation and support health professionals with feasible strategies for healthier living and therefore stay in their jobs (and in the health sector) longer. In the project WeCare we want to provide a mobile app for health professionals which can be used like a (pocket) coach and is available anytime and everywhere to immediately support, promote, train and preserve mental wellbeing in specific working situations.<< Objectives >>In many European countries the pressure on health professionals is high, due to skills shortage, long shifts, etc.. This has negative effects on the physical and mental health of these people. We think what is needed is a hands-on low threshold immediate relief to stress. Our project wants to make an immediate hands-on contribution to relieve the burden on health professionals and improve their mental health. Therefore, we want to create an app that can be visited any time in breaks, before and after work and so on and provides immediate support. Since we have nurses (JOAFG) and doctors (Sindikats) in our project team, who know the job inside out, we are optimistic to create an application that caters the needs of these professionals, since we get constant feedback from them during the creation process. The app shall become as personalised as possible (within the range that the Erasmus+ programme in terms of budget and time). Therefore, we expect a widespread use among the target group and expect interest from other professional groups as well, for whom the app concept can be adjusted to their specific needs. The cooperation with unions as project or associated partners will support the proliferation of the app.The objective of the project WECARE is to improve mental wellbeing of health professionals by providing a helpful, all time available and motivating tool for promoting mental health. We want to foster self-efficacy in implementing personal mental health and wellbeing strategies. Therefore, we implement a (pocket) coach which also acts like a trainer and companion for behavioural changes towards healthier behaviour in everyday life in the form of a mobile application. Furthermore, we want to understand (motivational) mechanisms for the implementation of mental health strategies in everyday life for health professionals.In a mobile app, health professionals have the chance to self-rate their actual mental wellbeing and have their own progress visualized. By implementing small assessments of for example signals for burnout, the health care professionals burden or their quality of life will be retrieved. By result, the user will be guided to advice, small everyday-challenges, games, and hints which will motivate and train the user to adapt for healthier behaviour and therefore contribute to a healthier lifestyle and improvement of mental health. Ideally, the user can see his or her improvements of mental wellbeing by watching the progress in a timeline. By rating the usefulness of actions proposed in the app during its usage in the testing phase, developers get direct feedback and it is possible to further analyse what has supported whom best in which situation. This information will feed back to the recommendations given at the end of the project. For the user, the app is meant to be a practical tool that acts as a “pocket coach”. By using the outcomes of short integrated assessments via defining thresholds, the user is automatically guided to relevant supportive actions in the app, which enables a customized user experience. Using the app must be fun by itself and furthermore motivating and helpful - even more as behavioral changes should be triggered and trained. Therefore the implementation of gamification components is planned.<< Implementation >>Previous scientific research on mental health of health care professionals (such as EMPOWER - the European Platform to promote wellbeing and health in the workplace; Project HOPE- addressing mental health crisis especially supporting during COVID-19 pandemic in US; Benessere Operatori - picture of mental health conditions of Italian healthcare workers during first wave of COVID-19 pandemic ) gives us a basis to build upon. It allows us to create a first draft system architecture of the app including a list of possible topics to cover from its analysis. These results will be discussed with experts (e.g. mental health experts, psychologists, coaches) in interviews and/or focus groups and with potential users by online questionnaire (n=250 health professionals). The most relevant fields of mental health and wellbeing, risk factors, health promotion activities, and relevant outcomes for health professionals will be defined. Furthermore, requirements for usability as well as the main content and assessments will be specified. A data management plan will be created and assessments (e.g. burnout questionnaire, caregivers burden questionnaire) prepared to be integrated into the app to enable a customized and situation-specific output. As it is planned to define thresholds for assessment outcomes that trigger specific actions, this needs careful consideration by the overall team and decision trees need to be defined. Furthermore, feedback on the app will be collected directly by using ratings for actions as well as being able to insert text in a feedback box.The development of the mobile app will follow in the next step. This contains the programming of the functionalities, designing the frontend as well as the design of the backend. Furthermore, content and gamification elements (e.g. personal daily challenges or social challenges, feedback or rewards for results achieved, status indicators ) need to be created and integrated. We will also include a mood assessment self reported scale (smiley face assessment scale) which is very easy to manage. The app will be available in 5 languages (English, German, Polish, Italian, Serbian), which requires translation by every partner. After functional testing, the app will be promoted and tested in every partner country by health professionals. The involvement of health professionals will be reached by marketing activities such as promotion on social media platforms, information by organizations, information in relevant print media, information spread by multipliers (e.g. labor unions). We plan to involve 500 health professionals in testing the app in all partner countries. The test will be open for 3 months.We will use the collected assessment and usage data as well as feedback to evaluate our provided measures. We will analyze these data concerning satisfaction with user experience or helpfulness of the tools provided, which will lead to accorded app improvements. Furthermore, the self-rated mental wellbeing of health professionals will allow an insight into different health care working fields and the related burden and risk factors our app users experience. We also aim to find out tendencies for strategies to motivate specific groups of persons and/or persons with specific working conditions to implement healthier behavioral patterns.These findings will be integrated into recommendations and can build a basis for further research on motivating specific groups of persons or persons in specific working conditions to enhance mental wellbeing. Furthermore, recommendations for health promotion activities in the sector and transferability to other sectors will be formulated. To create a sustainable tool the app will be promoted by multiplier events involving labor unions, insurances, social and care organizations, and further health care organizations.<< Results >>WeCare provides resilience training for health professionals on mental health risk factors, delivered through an app (primarily digital with optional blended activities and gaming components) following behavioural health promotion principles.To support nurses, care takers and other professionals of the medical sector who suffer from workload, a special and personalised mobile app is going to be created. The WECARE App’s aim is to deliver countermeasures to fight work-related pressure resulting from night/long shifts and a constant lack of time. The App will therefore promote the improvement of mental health by introducing assessments leading to specific tips and strategies to support the overall feel of its users. The WeCare project wants to make an immediate hands-on contribution to relieve the burden on health professionals and improve their mental health.

BICAS - Building Intercultural Competencies for Ambulance Services was a transnational project, co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, including six partners from Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, running from 09/2016-08/2019. The main objective of this project was answering a rising need for intercultural competencies of ambulance service employees throughout Europe triggered by greater awareness about cultural diversity in European societies and especially by the increased influx of migrants and refugees. The on-going European integration, as well as the growing numbers of refugees and migrants, make intercultural competencies a necessity in pre-clinical emergency services. In fact, ambulance services and paramedics, as well as other medical and emergency personnel, are confronted with situations where intercultural knowledge is necessary. If intercultural competencies are lacking, emergency services are increasingly overstrained, leading to inadequate communication with patients, massive complications based on cultural/religious differences, psychosocial challenges and high stress levels on both sides, which result in avoidable complications in emergency situations. To achieve increased intercultural competencies, the consortium, consisting of vocational training institutions, organisations working with migrants, providing intercultural competencies training, IT experts and evaluation experts, developed an intercultural training course concept and framework which was translated into a blended learning approach and supporting tools, such as a Quick Reference in Action mobile APP. The App, which summarizes important information and can be used on the job to support ambulance service employees in the fulfilment of their tasks by providing easy accessible and important cultural background Information has been tested in the partner countries. The intercultural training course concept has formulated learning outcomes using ECVET criteria. The format of this training course is blended learning, consisting of an e-learning pathway and in-class-training. The blended learning training course was piloted and thoroughly evaluated to achieve a sustainable high quality output, which will be used in vocational training and further training of paramedics throughout Europe even after the project has ended. The results of the testing phase have been thoroughly evaluated. The results have been formulated in the policy recommendations to provide other stakeholders with a blueprint for intercultural competence training and the BICAS project's lessons learned and derived recommendations for the successful implementation of an intercultural competencies training.The goal of the training course is to achieve the willingness and ability to change perspective and put oneself in the place of people with migration history and different cultural identities references, putting own views into perspective and broaden social skills and abilities to work more efficiently. Gaining intercultural competencies is a process, which takes time and where the outcome is difficult to measure or to be estimated, since this is dependent on the willingness to integrate this knowledge into one’s own thinking and acting. However, through the BICAS training course and App paramedics will be enabled to competently handle difficult emergencies in an intercultural situation. Achievements of the project:- training course on intercultural competencies available in English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish- trainer handbook for in-class-training available in English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish- course curriculum available in English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish- BICAS App available in English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish- Emergency support dictionary within the BICAS App available in 11 languages- training course evaluation report available in English- App evaluation report available in English- training Course Guidelines & policy recommendations available in English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish- implementation of intercultural competence training in initial and further education for paramedics by Johanniter Austria and Germany, and in Poland. BICAS materials will be used by the Department of Medical Emergency of University of Rzeszów, in initial and further vocational training in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.- ongoing cooperation of Italian, and Spanish partners with organisations active in further education in health care, for example with the Andalusian School of Public Health sited in Granada where the LLTA was delivered with the participation of teachers - extension of the course to other target groups within the health care system- growing understanding of the relevance of intercultural competencies

EUinAID project stems from a reflection on training on First Aid in Europe. The World First Aid Day in 2009 highlighted that different approaches to training on First Aid are existing among countries, with a significant gap in Europe in terms of % of people trained on First Aid (e.g. 80% in Austria; 0,3 % in Hungary).Enhancing training on First Aid among the general public and - in particular - the Youth could represent an excellent way to empower them, making them aware of the fact that such skills can really make the difference in Society as an expression of active citizenship, and a practice of Solidarity, contributing to build and spread a sense of community belonging, as well as strengthening Youth employability.Therefore, EUinAID aims to improve skills and competences of youth, especially NEETs (18-25) and youth workers in the field of health Assistance, by developing and testing at EU level an innovative transnational approach to First Aid practice based on Youth engagement and training, developing and straightening Youth hard-soft skills on the matter of First Aid, and spreading awareness about the importance of such practice for Health Assistance and the Society, as a whole.7 Partners from EU/non-EU countries (AU, BE, BR, CY, HU, IT, TR) are involved in project implementation that foresees a preparatory phase in which mapping/analytical activities will be jointly carried out by partners enabling the exchange/sharing of good practices in this field, also in the light of the harmonization at European level of the First Aid systems and practices. This starting phase will then include the definition of Learning Outcomes (LOs), training tools/contents/methodologies to be applied and promoted for a further exploitation in the ECVET/EQF framework. A creation of a stable network of relevant stakeholders will be set in the perspective of project sustainability and follow up, supported by the functioning of a multilingual e-training Platform supporting networking and virtual mobility activities by enabling users (learners/stakeholders) to autonomously generate, exchange and share multimedia training contents, and good practices.A sound communication and dissemination strategy, including awareness campaigns - through street events, activities in schools, and targeted publications/video products – will be developed in partner countries for spreading the importance and the fundamentals of First Aid among general public and the young. A Large Scale Youth Event in Turin will be co-designed and co-managed by the young involved in the blended learning mobility programme foreseen by project.At the core of the project, such programme will include a training course for young, combining OERs use with Youth Exchanges based on innovative non-formal learning activities (e.g. simulation of real scenarios/job shadowing), and a train-the-trainer programme for youth workers, also foreseeing OERs use, peer learning and mobility experiences.

The educational institutes of the Johanniter Akademie as educational institutions of Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. want to foster their vocational education and training internationally Current and subject-specific questions should not only be discussed internally and at the national level, but should also be developed in exchange, comparison and cooperation with other European countries. Experiences and places of learning should be extended for educational staff and learners to the European perspective in order to come to new impulses, approaches and motivations. Current challenges and innovations in VET should be designed with European responses and suggestions. Against this background, the aim of the project is to give the teachers the opportunity to actively participate in the professional exchange with European colleagues on specific issues of vocational education and to gain experience abroad in the professional environment for the learners. Lecturers from the faculties of social education, social work, inclusion, care for the elderly and rescue services of the education institutes Berlin / Brandenburg, Bremen Lower Saxony, NRW and Central Germany of the Johanniter Academy will participate in the study visits together with trainers from the training areas mentioned above. They will continue their education through one-week work programs in discussions, exchanges, trainings and workshops with European colleagues on current issues and issues related to vocational education and training. Educational staff from the field of geriatric care, for example, would like to address the upcoming generalization of nursing education in Germany with colleagues from Sweden and Norway. Rescue instructors and trainers are planning to discuss issues of vocational training academisation with fellow Hospitallers in Hungary. Trainees from the field of care for the elderly and paramedics of the educational institutes Bremen / Lower Saxony and Central Germany are to expand their professional skills, strengthen linguistic, social and intercultural competences and gain insights into the professional life in Europe within the scope of two-week internships in rescue and care facilities. In addition to the expansion of professional qualifications, all participants are expected to strengthen a tolerant and open attitude towards people of different social, religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as to the European idea. As part of the project, the participants will have the opportunity to further their professional and personal skills in the European context, which will be a valuable qualification for their future career and personal development.

Emergency Medical Services in Europe are characterised by a pluralistic landscape with diverse organisational setups, professional standards, coordination mechanisms and actors which result from different historical and institutional contexts in EU member states. However, diversity is united by the common aim, of providing timely care to victims of sudden and life-threatening injuries, emergencies or disasters within EU-member states (EUMS), in cross-border settings and international humanitarian missions. Fostering the response capacities and increasing the cooperation of the European Emergency Medical Services Systems (EMSS) is of decisive importance for strengthening the resilience of European societies in the light of multiple hazards: Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of disasters, terrorism is becoming a very real scenario for mass causality events challenging both out-of-hospital as well as in-hospital emergency care, and health related hazards are calling for close cooperation of public safety and health authorities on an international level. Not only hazards but also the system’s diversity poses a challenge for preparedness planning and cooperation, which needs to involve the whole EMS system at regional and/or national level and integrate it into the whole health system and fully coordinate with the public safety system to be effective. The iProcureSecurity project seeks to identify the major challenges the system’s diversity poses to the ability to work together, stimulate R&I uptake with a view to increasing standardisation of operations across Europe, and deliver technical requirements for R&I activities to create a European system of Medical Emergency Teams that is more homogeneous and capable to work as singly unit. To achieve this aim, the project will engage in several exchange cycles with practitioners and other stakeholders in the innovation landscape as a preparation for major R&I activities as part of a PCP action.