The Visegrad Platform was hosted by Diaconia Poland with the participation of Eurodiaconia members from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The meeting focused on developing services in psychiatry and the inclusion of people with mental health challenges. This is a very pertinent subject for Eastern Europe as the move away from institutional care towards community-based care speeds up. Yet, there is still a lot of stigma surrounding mental health and often a lack of understanding of the support that may be needed in the workplace or in education. Members came up with proposals on how to address both policies and practice in this area as well as exchanging on projects and experiences with funding, partnerships and advocacy.
From Poland, I moved onto Austria for the Annual General Assembly of the Kaiserswerth General Conference (KGC). KGC brings together diaconal organisations with a history of the Kaiserswerth tradition of Deaconesses, even if today there are different ways to engage and commit to the communities and organisations. The focus of their conference was the values and brand of Diaconia in the marketplace – a theme that is familiar to many of our members. It was a very successful conference with perceptive insights and reflections from within Diaconia and from external experts.
Yet running across both events was another theme: the ongoing refugee and asylum crisis in Europe. It was very helpful to speak to colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe about the reality of migration in those countries. Many emphasised that the views of people were not necessarily those expressed by politicians, but that there was concern that in some countries there was a need to invest in the infrastructure to host many migrants and to develop integration and inclusion work starting from the moment people arrived in a new country and not six months later. We were able to share those messages this week with the European Commission at a meeting with European Commissioner Marianne Thyssen who is responsible, among other things, for the European Social Fund. We asked how funds could be released quicker to ensure that inclusion programmes could be rapidly developed and that the same message needed to be transmitted to those responsible for other structural funds.
Over the coming weeks, we will continue to see how we can support the efforts of many of our members in Eastern Europe as well as in other parts of Europe as they embark on the longer term project of support and inclusion of migrants. It is a task that will need both practical partnerships,including between Eurodiaconia members, and funding from our European partners.This will be discussed in the Networking Meeting on Migration taking place on 8-9 December in Brussels. You shall receive a draft agenda as well as a registration form next week.
Have a good weekend
Heather Roy