There is a huge potential in exploring the many ways art and artistic practices can be used to create awareness about mental health, support resilience, extend emotional health literacy, treat or reduce symptoms, or be a great bridge in the process towards rehabilitation. NWA once again participated with great enthusiasm in the inspiring Arts & Mental Health Festival on Aegina, Greece.

Organized by the Greek organisation for informal carers EPIONI since 2022, the annual event has managed to gather a core international community of practitioners and innovators that are exploring and documenting these practices.

Lars Münter had the pleasure of delivering an opening speech, highlighting the amazing potential of creative practices not just for mental health, but also for improving knowledge sharing itself, for innovation, for leadership, and for general education too.

Nina Sønderberg also presented her new book “30 Days of Self-Love” at the event and the background and uses for these self-journaling tools for unlocking insights and progress for the user. NWA will further explore this in coming projects and initiatives (and look forward to report on them in Aegina in 2026!).

Looking the the future was the task at the HRH Symposium in Copenhagen April 28-30 at WHO Europe HQ in Copenhagen. NWA co-founder Lars Münter was invited to join both plenary panel, facilitate workshop on potential use of AI to reduce HCP burnout, and be a panelist in a breakout session. This combined presentation of our work with both the Nordic Health 2030 Movement, the Danish Life Science Cluster, the Strategic Partners Initiative on Data and Digital Health, the European Health Futures Forum, and also elements of the new MyHealth@MyHands Projec. In short – this was a great conference to understand mindsets and models.

The experience and the conference had a great energy building on a strong recognition of the need to transform the current method in new practices that benefits patients, staff, planet, and plans much better. Getting to that transformation is the tricky part.

Read more about the conference and find presentations here.

Trust is essential for future health and wellbeing. So to explore this basic fact. NWA has initiated a process of collaboration with European partners to define methods and platforms to take practical action to better define how. How do we design for trust? How do we measure and adapt our strategy for trust?

January 27, 2025 we will be exploring this at collaborative event in Brussels – we look forward to share more about the outcome; but read more in the invite here;

EUREGHA plays a vital role in advancing local implementation of health policies while fostering a broader European understanding of the strengths and challenges of a regional approach to health and wellbeing. By bringing together regional and local health authorities across Europe, EUREGHA facilitates the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions tailored to diverse contexts.

The network enables regions to share insights into how healthcare can be optimized at the local level, highlighting the unique needs and resources of smaller communities while ensuring alignment with broader European health goals. At the same time, EUREGHA’s work helps identify the limitations of a regional approach, such as disparities in resources, political frameworks, and healthcare access, offering a clearer picture of what works and where improvements are needed.

By bridging the gap between local realities and European policy, EUREGHA strengthens collaboration between regions and EU institutions, driving more effective and inclusive health strategies. Ultimately, the network’s efforts are crucial for fostering a health ecosystem that is both regionally tailored and responsive to the challenges of an interconnected Europe.

NWA was happy to participate in their annual conference in Brussels December 5, 2024 to add perspectives to the role of trust and collaboration as a local and regional superpower for the wellbeing of Europeans. Lars Münter participated in a panel with two regional representatives Emma Spear, Deputy Director, Health, Social Care & Early Years Group Director General’s Office, Welsh Government – Thomas Van Langendonck, Vitalink Analyst, Team eHealth, Department of Care, Flanders – at European level also policy officer Simone Boselli, Labour market, Education, Health & Social services of DG Reform.

Since 2019, the Data Saves Lives initiative by the European Patients Forum has been vital for the important discussion about the digital transformation of healthcare and social services in Europe – and the key role of patient voices in all those evolutions. By ensuring data is accurate, secure, and accessible, the initiative helps address public health challenges, particularly in low-resource settings. In this context, ongoing debate about AI is crucial, as it addresses concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the ethical implications of AI-driven decision-making in healthcare.

So in November 26-27, EPF marked the 5th Anniversary of the Data Saves Lives initiative to further emphasize the critical role of data in improving healthcare outcomes, advocating for the responsible use of personal health information to guide medical decisions and enhance patient care. The event gathered a great mix of patient advocates, data science experts, regulators, ngo representatives, policy makers and more.

NWA participated with having Lars Münter both being in a debate panel on Data Savvy Patients: Empowerment through AI Literacy in Healthcare with Anca Toma, CEO of EPF and Ildiko Vajda of the Dutch Patient Organisation, Eric Sutherland of the OECD and – Stefan Phillips, OneVision Healthcare. And by facilitating a workshop on the importance of education in enhancing trust (in data, health, collaboration etc).

27/12/2024, Brussels – Data Saves Lives 2024 – European Patients’ Forum EPF
© Elio Germani 2024

It is always exciting to get to the first actual meeting in a new project. In the Forgotten Fish project this meant a visit to the Foggia province of Apulia, Italy.

Given the purpose of the project – to find new paths to enable gastronomical entrepreneurs to transform forgotten fish species into new culinary experiences and a contribution to a transformation towards sustainable food systems – this was a golden opportunity to also connect history with future.

In addition to a series of microtrainings, we got to experience the traditional (but challenged by climate change) fishing communities in Peschisi, artisinal wine making practices in San Severo, and bread making (from flour to fork) in Foggia it self.

Amazing landscape, people, tastes, and history. And a great meeting for our Greek, Italian, and Danish consortium. We look forward to meeting in Syros and Ærø – almost worlds apart, but connected by sea, cooking, and fish.

With project partners in Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary, NWA was excited to join the kick off meeting in Limoges, France for the MentaStress project: Empowering First Responders for Better Mental Health in Crisis Situations.

The project is an innovative EU-wide initiative designed to both enhance first responders’  efficiency in emergencies and to support their mental well-being before and after.

The project will develop learning materials based on real life crisis events, and a multilingual platform to support the first responders and raise awareness. We will also explore and build augmented reality tools to create immersive stress-management training for first responders and carry out training in five EU countries to validate tools and content. This will help us build a comprehensive stress management guide.

MentaStress connects 9 partners across 7 EU countries, spans over 24 months and includes pilot programs, research, events, and seminars, creating an inclusive platform that targets broad engagement and sustainability.

We aim to shape policies in crisis management and mental health at both the national and EU levels. By fostering cross-sector cooperation, MentaStress will offer scalable and transferable training solutions, improving crisis response and mental health support for first responders and the community.

Smart Health Age-Friendly Environments are the purpose of the SHAFE Foundation. NWA has the great honour of participating in the EU Week for Sustainable and Inclusive Communities: the future is SHAFE – taking place October 1-3, 2024.

NWA participated with a presentation on “Looking at the future: health and wellbeing European citizens” and talk about trust, accountability and KPIs, about cross-sector collaboration, and about horizon scanning as a tool for strategy and progress.

Read more at the event site here – or read about the SHAFE Foundation here and their amazing work explore and promote age-friendly progress in Europe.

Cool news – a new project to explore the use of Forgotten Fish

Forgotten fish are species underused by industrial fishing due to their small size or failure to reach a threshold for commercial trade, thus being underused in mass consumption and catering. Usually caught accidentally, they are discarded, contributing to waste and a lower respect for marine biodiversity (WWF, “The World’s Forgotten Fishes”, 2021).

Even if they are forgotten by industrial fishing, these could be an essential resource for artisanal fishing and environmental conservation since they can be caught in limited periods of the year. Due to the rapidity of their reproductive cycle, they are not at risk of extinction. However, the limited awareness and knowledge of forgotten fish lead to their underutilization and undervaluation in catering. Consequently, catering operators and VET centers are unfamiliar with these species and either do not use them or lack adequate synergies with artisanal fishing to make efficient and innovative use of them in catering.

The objectives of this project are:
A. Increase the knowledge and skills of catering operators in the use of forgotten fish.
B. Foster synergies between restaurateurs and artisanal fishermen in the use of forgotten fish.
C. Promote the use and promotion of forgotten fish in catering.

In this project we partner with Italian and Greek partners, in a consortium led by the amazing restaurant in Marstang Mad&Vin from Marstal, Ærø in Denmark – exploring practices from 2024-2026.

Mental health – stress management for first responders through augmented reality in disasters

As a new experience, we’ll be part of a French-led consortium to explore better pathways towards mental health in a very challenging workplace – disaster, accidents, and crisis. With 8 other partners from France, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, we’ll be able from 2024-2026 to not just explore and develop better practices, but also integrate new technology for relief, awareness, management, and possibly rehabilitation in the MentaStress project.

Our project will look nothing like the image of minions – but like them, we humans are simply trying to do our best in challenging circumstances.  We’ll be back with more asap.