Be Mindful: An innovative mindfulness based training program for mental health professionals

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Webinar on “Improving Services and Care for Psychosocial Disability” ISEMconQ.

On December 17, Red ISEM, a national Spanish platform advocating for improved mental health services, www.redisem.es, hosted a live YouTube webinar on enhancing services and care for psychosocial disability and mental health, aimed at organizations committed to quality and innovation in this field. This event, organized by Red ISEM under the ISEMconQ project, sought to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration among organizations working to strengthen their services.

During the session, the innovative online ISEMconQ platform was presented, designed to help mental health entities measure, analyze, and improve their data using a battery of indicators tailored to their reality. This collaborative tool enables practical self-assessments, result comparisons, and access to visual reports that support strategic decision-making. To date, it includes 63 direct participants, 5 strengthening plans, various positioning and trend indices, an operational self-assessment tool, and a technical document for policymakers, with plans to open it to the entire Third Sector by late 2026.

The event featured organizations like ZITEC and Fundación Argia, who shared their experiences and lessons in continuous quality improvement. Raquel Hierro Hernández, Senior Consultant at Zitec, defined concepts such as management, indicators, evidence, continuous improvement, and benchmarking, linking them to reference models and the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), applicable at all organizational levels. She detailed types of indicators (process control, performance, and perception), provided practical examples, and demonstrated how measurement adds objectivity, highlights issues, evaluates progress and social impact, and aids future anticipation, while describing data collection tools for entity comparisons and identifying best practices in a continuous improvement framework.

Arantza Larizgoitia, Head of Quality Management, Knowledge, and Innovation at Argia Fundazioa, offered an inspiring reflection on transformation processes in this area. She explained the shift from quality as mere compliance to an integral approach based on the Advanced Management Model, centered on the user and consensus criteria with administrations, professionals, and clients. She described the evolution from «patient» to co-managing user-partner and from expert professional to responsible facilitator, strengthening client orientation and involvement in service design, while detailing participatory and activism processes (assemblies, co-management, Peer Support, and community action) that created a more inclusive, diverse environment and organizational change focused on recovery, empowerment, and stigma reduction.

The session was an excellent opportunity for Social Economy and Third Sector entities seeking to strengthen services, promote transparency, and advance toward more efficient and humane management. The network thanked all participants and organizations for their involvement and interest.

Here’s the full webinar recording for those who want to watch it again or missed the live event:
https://youtu.be/T4dirVQdRrM
All project information here:
https://www.redisem.es/2025/12/23/gracias-por-acompanarnos-en-el-evento-de-isemconq/

The ISEMconQ project develops employment maintenance pathways for vulnerable social groups and strengthens CEEIS, EIS, and Social Coop. I. Social 2024–2026, co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus under the EFESO Program through CEPES as Intermediate Body.

CEPESEFESO #CEPESFSE #ISEMconQ #Calidad #Servicios #Atención #Evaluación #SaludMental

THE ART OF RELATIONSHIP WITH PERSONAL BOUNDARIES

It is possible that, when working in the service of others, you have experienced unpleasant situations when interacting with another person. Perhaps feelings of weariness, nervousness, blocking or not knowing what to do have appeared at some moments. You might have felt attacked orunderestimated sometimes or might have felt like your own mind boycotted youthrough feelings of uselessness or ineffectiveness. 

There are plenty of studies that support the idea that the help offered to others is measured by own self-care. Learning to interact with others, with our personal vulnerability and boundaries shaped as thoughts and feelings, can turn out to be a requisite to help connect with the clients in a specialway that helps create transformative moments.

[Read more…] about THE ART OF RELATIONSHIP WITH PERSONAL BOUNDARIES

Spotlight on the effectiveness of Mindfulness-based interventions for people with Intellectual Disability

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions (taking into account the interaction of personal characteristics with the environment that surrounds the person).

Moreover, the WHO distinguishes, among others, the Intellectual Disability as a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information and to learn and apply new skills, which results in a reduced ability to cope independently.

Nowadays, treatments include different types of interventions (medical, psychological, educational, etc.), which are supported by various scientific studies in order to improve a positive mental health framework.

Therefore, Intellectual Disability presents a series of clinical manifestations that have a psychological, emotional, social and functional impact, which will affect the performance and quality of the daily life: from the difficulty of adapting to changes to the general social relations.

[Read more…] about Spotlight on the effectiveness of Mindfulness-based interventions for people with Intellectual Disability

Where to navigate?

Finding your direction in life: the lighthouse

Life has many facets, many turns and many storms to navigate. Sometimes we make these shifts from facet to facet in a smooth way, sometimes life puts us in these situations without previous notice, and we are almost obliged to change the course. We needed to STOP (see the blog entry NAVIGATE MINDFULLY: How can mindfulness create change in your life) and rethink because we may find ourselves in a difficult job situation, or after a divorce, or losing someone important in our life, or not satisfied with the life we are living or the ones we are becoming. We may notice that a change is needed, a new course, but we may find ourselves not knowing where to head. We just know that the old harbor is not the one we want to navigate.

This is a place of uncertainty. We may feel that there are many options, and it is difficult to choose one, or we can find ourselves with no energy to even think about a new harbor. We might just see fog, feel numb and empty; sometimes we do not even have words to describe how we feel. At that point, it is time to explore our heart. Would you like to try this exercise? [Read more…] about Where to navigate?

Your mindfulness course has finished? What’s next? Nurturing your daily mindfulness practice

Finishing a mindfulness course is usually just an ending of a beginning. This is an important transition in which you pass from being supported by the guidance of a tutor to following your own internal motivation or/and needs. From my own experience and having seen this many times with participants when finishing the course, this is not an easy transition. The question is how to stay in contact with mindfulness in the midst of our busy lives? [Read more…] about Your mindfulness course has finished? What’s next? Nurturing your daily mindfulness practice

MIND-WANDERING AND MINDFULNESS

Have you ever taken a wrong turn with your car while deep in thoughts; or searched for your mobile phone and, a few moments later, realized you were actually holding it in your hand; or caught yourself having no clue on the topic of the conversation you’ve just had? In other words, have you ever felt, as you were not fully living through what you are doing? If you have, then do not panic. What has happened to you is that your mind has wandered away from what you were doing in those moments- a natural occurrence that happens to most people sometimes.

Probably you are asking yourself what the so-called mind wandering is…

We call it mind wandering when thoughts unrelated to the current task and dissociated from current sensory information take place in our mind. [Read more…] about MIND-WANDERING AND MINDFULNESS

SET A COURSE! EMPOWERING PEOPLE THROUGH MINDFULNESS

To empower means “to make an individual or social group powerful or stronger”, “to give power”. Therefore, it is a term that seems to be quite appropriate for those who suffer or go through complex situations in their lives. In the field of mental health and social services, nobody questions this concept and, nowadays, it has been applied to multiple collectives: battered women, disabled persons, people in a situation of social exclusion, children suffering bullying, etc.

But, what is empowerment made of? How can we empower in a real way? How can we avoid the mere content of the word and focus on what is important for the person who is suffering?

In order to shed light on these questions, we should go back to the meaning. [Read more…] about SET A COURSE! EMPOWERING PEOPLE THROUGH MINDFULNESS

First steps in mindfulness practice: the joys and the struggles

When starting with mindfulness practice it can be quite challenging. Especially if we have never been involved in a daily regular practice of any kind of meditation. Mindfulness practice offers us quite a spacious place to just BE with ourselves. This intimate encounter with our body, emotions, and thoughts comes also with some challenges.

The first challenge that we might come across is that we can get bored or perhaps annoyed with the practice, the audio recording or ourselves. This can feel irritating and somehow we might even get the feeling that this is not what is supposed to be happening within the practice or it is not how we have imagined it to be. But if you encounter this kind of unpleasant feelings, they are actually as welcome as any other. Such experiences, no matter how challenging, provide us an opportunity to work with negative emotions. This is the practice. This is where we need to bring our attention closer to, taking a non-judgemental stance. So how can we stay curious and nurturing when facing boredom or irritation? [Read more…] about First steps in mindfulness practice: the joys and the struggles