Teal partners. International Associations and Organisations

“Teal” partners:

International Associations and Organisations:

The WHO Collaborating Centre for research and mental health Lille, France (WHOCC Lille, France) fulfills the WHO requirements and orientations for training and research in mental health. It gathers hospitals, research centres and universities working together for the development of its action plan

The WHOCC is validated periodically by WHO on the basis of a multi-annual program, validated by a Scientific Council gathered around common values. The WHOCC is based on a large network of people qualified to concretise this program.

WHOCC Missions:

1. Promote and coordinate the participation of French research and teaching teams in the WHO research and training activities
2. Inform the French authorities and specialists about WHO activities useful for French Mental Health programs development
3. Inform WHO mental health division about French work and projects regarding public health and regulation in order to support the programs concrete setting up
4. Constitute a focal point for Mental Health French experts and to facilitate their relationships with WHO
5. Contribute to produce French version of WHO technical documents, in particular those used for mental health national program development, in collaboration with the French-speaking collaborating centers, WHO Africa and WHO Geneva
6. Ensure the role of European WHO Collaborating Centers Co-leader for fighting stigma in mental ill-health and Co-leader for services transformation

WHOCC Values:

• Promotion of a Mental Health fully integrated in the community
• Fight stigma of people living with psychic disorders,
• Full participation of users and citizens to the psychiatric services quality improvement,
• Development of research, training, information and networking in Mental Health,
• Valorisation, sharing and spreading of pilot experiences in Community Mental Health,
• Networking with health professional and any people working in the mental health field.

WHOCC Action program is divided in 6 areas based on research, training, information and networking activities:

1. Mental health in general population: images and realities (International survey about mental health social representations and mental disorders epidemiology)
2. Suicide prevention
3. Users rights. Mental Health Promotion. Tackling stigma and discrimination (including social representations survey about stigma and discrimination in mental health, information and promotion actions based on social representations studies)
4. Innovating experiences in community mental health network
5. Medico economic evaluation of psychiatric sectors
6. Sociology of mental health (including various socio anthropological studies on mental health sociological aspects)

The international association AIERS, whose statute was approved during the 5th International Conference on Social Representations (Montreal, Canada 2000) brought together a scientific community with thousands of affiliates on all continents, most particularly in Europe and in Latin America.

The association's objective is the promotion of the study social representations; its goals and the means to arrive at its goals are the following:

• encouragement of research in social representations;
• promotion of teaching in the area of social representations;
• facilitation of the exchange of information between members of the Association,
• and between the association and other institutions that have similar interests,
• especially those who wish to overcome linguistic barriers;
• publication of a liaison bulletin;
• organisation of meetings;
• encouragement for scientific publications in the area of social representations
• using various supports and languages;
• promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration among its members;
• promotion of  collaboration between researchers and clinicians, administrators
• and political authorities interested in social representations, thereby
• favouring cooperation between the theoretical and the practical.

The networking activities of the So.Re.Com.Thematic Network will contribute to develop the AIERS, and the number of its member candidates over the world.

The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) was born on November 16, 1945. For this specialized agency of the United Nations, the most important objective is not to build classrooms in devastated countries or  restore sites of the world patrimony. The Organization's main objective is vast and ambitious: to build peace in Man's spirit through  education, science,  culture and  communication.

UNESCO has 190 member states. It is a legally independent special organization of the United Nations and has its headquarters in Paris.  The guiding idea of UNESCO is  that as wars develop in the human spirit, then peace must also embodied in the human spirit".  It is found in  the preamble of its constitution, which 37 states signed on 16 November 1945 in London. From the experience of the Second World War they had learned that  "a peace based exclusively  on political and economic agreements of governments cannot meet the unanimous, continuing and sincere agreement of the peoples of the world. Peace must be embodied - if it not to fail - in the mental and moral solidarity of mankind.