CO.S.M.I.C – community support to migrant informal carers, a group which is at double risk of exclusion, discrimination and stigmatization.

Migrant carers in common with carers more generally, work tirelessly in support of those they care for, often without recognition and to the detriment of their own health and well-being. The project group has been working from Jan 2019 to March 2021.

THE PROJECT HAS DEVELOPED A MIGRANT CARERS TRAINING PROGRAMME

Supporting professionals to support migrant carers

Training and upskilling professionals to be able to help informal carers is strategic to support the adaptation of existing services to better respond to the needs of carers from migrant background.

The Erasmus+ funded COSMIC project has developed and piloted two multi-lingual resources targeting to social and health care professionals, such as: nurses, social workers, cultural mediators, social educators, doctors and anyone potentially reaching out to migrant carers. The goal is to provide them with essential skills and knowledge to incorporate a cultural perspective in their work and to be able to think how they could adapt their practices to be more inclusive and culturally-sensitive.

The training materials available are two-folds:

A face-to-face training package for professionals, which was successfully piloted at local level in all countries. It includes session plans and all resources needed for a trainer to implement the training at local level. The handbook is downloadable from: https://cosmicproject.eu/downloads/

An online course for professionals that can be accessed as selfdirected learning. It includes multi-media unit, resources to get deeper in the subjects and self-assessment tests to evaluate the acquired knowledge. The e-learning is accessible from: https://cosmicproject.eu/elearning/

The COSMIC project has also developed material for migrant carers

To this end, COSMIC partnership has released a booklet addressed to associations, informal groups, community leaders and others in the capacity to reach out to CWMBs from the main migrant communities living in IT-SLO- NOR-GR.

These brochures describe who the caregiver is and gives advice on how he/she can be supported by the local communities. These booklets have been localized for Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Norway and translated in the languages of the three most represented migrant communities in the countries.

They are supported by an exploitation guide which gives suggestions to professionals on how to incorporate the booklets in support activities at local level. Download resources from: https://cosmicproject.eu/downloads/

The COSMIC project has now come to an end. Please feel free to use and get inspiration from the material at the website https://cosmicproject.eu/

Anita Vatland, Project coordinator Pårørendealliansen