Participatory innovation around mental health which created a working group that advised on solutions to tackle mental health, addictive behaviours and drug-related problems in Valencia, integrating the Government's agenda and policy.
Innovation Summary
Innovation Overview
The permanent and cumulative exposure to global adverse situations is decompensating people with mental illness but also warns us that anyone can become depressed, addicted, drinker, distressed, with cognitive impairment or with the intention of dying. In view of this concern, the Generalitat Valenciana and the University of Valencia reached a collaboration agreement for the elaboration of the Action Plan on Mental Health, Drug Addiction and Addictive Behaviour of the Valencian Community (2023-2026) through a deliberative and participative process in which the citizens have been given a leading role.
Following the methodological proposal of the OECD, two committees were created to accompany the process.
the process. The first of these was the committee of experts, whose purpose was to define the topics and the experts.
to define the themes and experts that would form part of the citizens' convention, and the second was the monitoring committee. Its purpose was to ensure the smooth running of the deliberative process, to contribute proposals for the thematic debates and to receive feedback on the results.
Parallel to the constitution of the committees, a citizen panel of 70 participants was formed, based on a civic draw among citizens of the Valencian Community over the age of 15 who had a Population Information System (SIP).The sample universe was 4,285,854 persons. The sample size was defined with the aim of achieving the most descriptive sample possible of the population of the Valencian Community.
After 4 working sessions, 70 citizens selected through a civic lottery issued 27 recommendations in response to the following question: "How do you think mental health, drug addictions and addictive behaviours should be addressed in the Valencian Community?". The result of the process with their respective justifications can be found at the following link: https://comissionatsalutmental.gva.es/es/recomanacions.
All the recommendations were voted in plenary and all of them obtained 60% of support from the participants.
of the participants. Afterwards, a technical evaluation of the recommendations was carried out and the highest authority of the Valencian Community received some of the members of the convention so that they could explain the results of the process.
Subsequently, the recommendations were incorporated into the law accompanying the budgets of the Generalitat Valenciana for the 2023 financial year. Below is the literal text of the publication in the Official Journal of the Valencian Community:
"To this is added the commitment of the Consell to the adoption of measures aimed at strengthening mental health care in accordance with the conclusions of the mental health care according to the conclusions of the Citizen's Convention on Mental Health of the Valencian Mental Health of the Comunitat".
Innovation Description
What Makes Your Project Innovative?
This is the first deliberative process on mental health at regional level in Europe. The involvement and support to the process of international institutions such as the WHO and the dissemination by all regional media have demonstrated the interest and the need to address this issue collectively and transversally.
For the first time, first-person testimonies of people affected by mental illness were heard during the deliberations.
In order to achieve effective communication, a communication strategy was defined with the slogan: "What goes through your head can help what goes through your head" with the aim of generating interest in citizens to participate in the process. The strategy was accompanied by a support action open to citizens and entities with an interest in mental health, which received concrete support from institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Innovation Development
Collaborations & Partnerships
The general public together with key actors linked to mental health supported the deliberative process through the claim I support the convention. The different endorsements received can be consulted at the following link: https://comissionatsalutmental.gva.es/es/jo-recolze-la-convencio.
Concrete support was received from Dr Ledia Lazeri, Regional Mental Health Advisor of the World Health Organization (WHO), who sent a video of support before the start of the process.
Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries
The members of the convention in the elaboration of 27 recommendations that were subsequently introduced in the budgets of the autonomous government for the year 2023. The members were received by the highest authority of the Valencian government to explain the results of the process. Civil society organisations were given the opportunity to present their experiences to the rest of society and to generate alliances.
Innovation Reflections
Results, Outcomes & Impacts
The members of the convention in the elaboration of 27 recommendations that were subsequently introduced in the budgets of the autonomous government for the year 2023. The members were received by the highest authority of the Valencian government to explain the results of the process. Civil society organisations were given the opportunity to present their experiences to the rest of society and to generate alliances.
Challenges and Failures
The challenges:
- Distrust of the possibility of change embedded in society.
- Participants' own disbelief in being able to contribute recommendations without being experts in the field.
- Lack of importance of enlightened people
- Innovation of the process with the rigidity of the functioning of the public service.
- Adjusting the methodology to the data protection regulations.
Replication
The approach of the process and the methodology developed for its execution would allow it to be transferred and replicated on different scales: local, national and European. This would require the political will to tackle in depth the collective malaise resulting from a system that often prevents something as basic as the right to live. The government team that would like to take on the task must reach a prior agreement with all the political forces and actors involved in order to guarantee the continuity and success of the process. The involvement of all citizens, as well as the construction of prior alliances, would give greater solidity to the process.
Lessons Learned
When citizens are given the necessary spaces and tools, they have the capacity to identify problems and propose the most appropriate solutions.
- Deliberation is one of the most useful and efficient mechanisms to elaborate effective public policies that reach the last link (citizens).
- The lottery has shown that it is possible to find common ground despite the differences that may exist in terms of age, gender, educational level or origin.
- Citizens have shown that they put the general interest and collective well-being before their own interests.
Anything Else?
The previous work of the expert and monitoring committee. The experts were selected with the aim of obtaining a cross-cutting and independent vision of the mental health situation in the region. The experts participated in a nominal group dynamic to propose the topics and experts. As for the monitoring committee made up of representatives of the parliamentary groups of the regional government, patients' and relatives' associations, social agents (trade unions and employers), scientific societies and professional associations linked to mental health, it generated its own effective system of governance different from the traditional decision-making process.
Project Pitch
Status:
- Implementation - making the innovation happen
- Evaluation - understanding whether the innovative initiative has delivered what was needed
- Diffusing Lessons - using what was learnt to inform other projects and understanding how the innovation can be applied in other ways
Innovation provided by:
Date Published:
5 November 2024