“HelpEx: European Qualification of Ex-Patients in the Helping Process of Rehabilitation and Recovery” is a European partnership of 8 participating organizations in 6 European countries (DE, IT, FR, CZ, PL, ML) which lasts from September 2019 to August 2022. The participating organizations are service providers in the field of mental health and provide rehabilitation and recovery services (ambulant and/or stationary) for people with mental health problems/disorders and/or substanse abuse problems.Due to the significant prevalence of mental health problems and substance abuse problems among European citizens and the political demand for inclusion, strengthening patients´ rights and empowering civil forces, the partnership develops a training curriculum for ex-patients to become assistants in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders. Complementary to the training curriculum for ex-patients the partnership also develops a training curriculum for professionals in rehabilitation and recovery services for patients with substance abuse problems and/or mental disorders to coordinate and supervise ex-patients and cooperate with them in the helping process. In order to be able to mainstream these vocational competences in the mental health system the partners also create country specific analyses of the structures and recommendations for the structural integration of the assistants in the mental health system of the partner countries. These results will be presented in three intellectual outputs (documents).People who have a personal history and experiences with mental health problems are called ex-patients in this project. They can have overcome their problems without help, may have been clients and patients of the partners or may have sought help somewhere else. Professionals in the project are considered to be paid staff members of the partners who help patients to rehabilitate and recover. They can be therapists, social workers, doctors, psychologists.For the development of the training curricula and the analyses the partners work together in 6 transnational meetings and via ICT and implement pilot trainings in their own services with 30 ex-patients and professionals. Selected parts of the trainings are implemented in two joint short-term staff trainings for 14 ex-patients and 14 professionals during the second project year.For dissemination the partners implement a multiplying event of 50 participants in each partner country, create a project website, put the results on the partner websites and on an OER platform, write 4 project newsletters and follow a dissemination plan for each country.The impact of the project is: more human ressources in mental health services, a higher quality of rehabilitation and recovery services by brining the ex-patients´ perspectives and experiences to the helping process and an empowerment of patients and civil forces.