At the beginning of 2021, a consortium of European university and non-university workplaces applied for approval of a grant from the European Commission’s AMIF fund (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund).
The main applicant is the University of Amsterdam (NL) and the members of the consortium are, in addition to the Faculty of Arts CPU (SK), the University of Alcalá (ES), the Free University of Brussels (BE), the University of Surrey (UK), the University of Vilnius (LT), the University of Warsaw (PL), the University of Genoa (IT) and companies and associations working in the field of mental health and translation services (NL, DE, BE, PL).
The application has been successful and the project entitled Mental HEALTH 4 ALL: Development and implementation of a digital platform for the promotion of access to mental health for low language proficient third-country nationals in Europe has been approved.
The project coordinator for Slovakia is Dr. Soňa Hodáková from the Department of Translation Studies, Faculty of Arts, CPU in Nitra. Works are therefore beginning for the Department and its partners from the industry within a three-year multidisciplinary project in which academics, psychologists, public service translators and interpreters and communication technology specialists will work with organisations providing integration services for migrants and healthcare providers across Europe in order to develop, implement and subsequently evaluate a multilingual, culturally sensitive and sustainable information and communication platform to enable third-country nationals to have better access to healthcare and to improve communication with institutions in the host countries as such. The primary target group of the project are refugees, asylum seekers and other groups of migrants suffering from mental health problems. The consortium’s activities will start by mapping available language resources and identifying barriers and needs in different countries at different levels of healthcare provision for third-country nationals and will continue by developing innovative communication strategies that will help remove these barriers and improve access to mental health for all.