Welcome to the autumn edition of the newsletter for the eMEN e-mental health project, funded through the Interreg North West European Innovation Programme. eMEN is a six country e-mental health project with a value of €5.36million (approximately £4.5million), which will run until November 2019. This project is being led by the Netherlands with partners in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and the UK who combine technological, clinical, research, and policy expertise. Information and contact details for the partners are available on the project website.
What is e-mental health?
E-mental health is “the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support and improve mental health, including the use of online resources, social media and smartphone applications”.
eMEN will be showcasing the full range of digital technologies including: apps, virtual reality, wearable devices, online treatment modules and virtual real-time therapy.
eMEN has produced a series of podcasts discussing aspects of e-mental health with leaders in our partner countries.
Product Development Showcase
In our Summer newsletter we provided an update on the product selection phase of eMEN. We have now prepared an online Product Development Showcase of the selected products of which we think have great potential, even greater benefits and low(er) costs if implemented well. That’s where eMEN helps to progress the successful implementation of e-mental health at scale.
eMEN Cooperation Platform
Over the course of the project eMEN partners will build a sustainable cooperation platform to support the development and implementation of e-mental health in our partner countries, across Europe and globally. This will be an important legacy of our work together between the partners and with you. Members of the cooperation platform will include e-developers, service providers, people with experience mental health problems, clinicians, policy makers and researchers. Over the summer we have created a Cooperation Platform section to the eMEN website. More information is available from the eMEN Project Lead Oyono Vlijter o.vlijter@arq.org; and by connecting to us on LinkedIn.
‘Ready or not: The General Data Protection Regulation’ by Arq
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect from 25 May 2018 after a two-year transition period and is directly binding in all Member States. The UK has indicated that it will accept the GDPR despite Brexit. This means a huge operational change for European organisations to ensure compliance. They can no longer rely on national laws for their current policies and processing activities. The regulation is meant to unify data protection within the European Union and aims to simplify regulation and give control back to individuals over their personal data. It replaces the current Directive that has been in place since 1995.
What you need to know to be ready
Awareness. Decision makers in organisations need to be aware of this change and identify how it will impact on current processes and services.
Rights of those concerned. The GDPR means more rights for those concerned. In addition to existing rights like public access there are new rights emphasising consent and accountability, which influences accessibility of data.
Overview of processing. Organisations need to have an instant overview of their data in order to be able to respond to the changing data environment at any given time.
Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). This instrument will be mandatory for data processing with an estimated high privacy risk in order to minimize those risks.
Privacy by design and privacy by default. Privacy by design means that the protection of data is taken into account at the start of the design. Privacy by default means technical and organisational steps have to be taken in order to make sure only data, which is fit purpose are processed.
The approach of Dutch Mental health organisation Emergis
A deliberate and proactive GDPR strategy and programme is recommended. Ad Koppejan
from Emergis, a Dutch mental health institution, gave an interesting presentation at the eMEN seminar in Amsterdam this July on their privacy regulation efforts.
An important conclusion of the Emergis approach is that information safety and privacy policy is not a one person job. It involves everybody, from frontline employee to top management. Their GDPR strategy involved:
• training and hiring skilled people,
• creating a working group on information safety,
• setting up a Dataleaks Platform and undertaking digital reporting to the Platform,
• undertaking a baseline risk analysis, and
• writing organisation policy.
This work has been supported by a communication plan that has driven activities including: workshops of managers, e-learning modules, speaking to employees, and creating posters.
Join us
Over the next three years eMEN will engage innovators, decision makers, clinicians and those with experience of using e-interventions personally. It is only through collaboration that
we will be able to realise the potential of technology to support and improve mental health across Europe.
• Follow eMEN on twitter @eMEN_EU
• Check updates and register for this newsletter at http://www.nweurope.eu/emen
• Connect on LinkedIn: for anyone who is interested in eMEN and / or international e-mental health implementation: https://www. linkedin.com/showcase/11104546/ (eMEN_EU)
• Join our LinkedIn Group: exclusively for people who want to join the eMEN platform: https:// www.linkedin.com/groups/13531032 (eMEN_ EU Platform)
• Come along to one of the conferences and seminars that will take place over the next three years.
Upcoming FREE transnational events
Each of the 6 countries will host one conference and three seminars: a total of 24 transnational events during the project. The 2017 events will introduce participants to e-mental health and showcase products. Together they will address all aspects of e-mental health to achieve evidence based innovation, quality, access and scale.
Dublin ‘Technology for Wellbeing’ #T4WB17
When: 16 November, 9.00 – 17.00
Where: The Hilton, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2
What: Highlights are keynotes by Clare Dillon from Microsoft Ireland, Dr Derek Richards from SilverCloud Health and Liza Davies from ReachOut Australia. Minister of State for Mental Health, Jim Daly, will open the conference. The event is organised in collaboration with ReachOut Ireland.
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ technology-for-wellbeing-2017-t4wb17tickets-35430892754
In 2018, we are looking forward to a busy year of transnational events that will continue to develop e-mental health within Europe. Here is the current schedule.
Belgium: 23 February ‘Ethics and Beyond CBT’
France (Lille): 30 March ‘New roles for therapists and the empowerment of service users’
Netherlands: April ‘e-mental health curriculum development and training for professionals’
Edinburgh: May ‘Place based approaches to the use of digital technologies for mental health’
Germany: June ‘e-Mental Health Policy in Europe: results from eMEN policy mapping’
Belgium: September ‘Wearables’
Germany: October ‘e-Mental Health Policy in Europe: developing policy recommendations’
Ireland: November
France (Rennes): December ‘Future developments in e-mental health’
London: December ‘Public Mental Health: the role of digital technologies role in preventing mental health problems’
We welcome invitations to contribute to your event. Partner contact information for the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom is available at
http://www.nweurope.eu/emen.
