In an effort to contibute to increased physical, mental and social well-being of migrants, in March 2019 IOM Slovenia implemented four trainings on diverse issues related to communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as mental health in the context of migration. Over 200 law enforcement officers, social workers and health professionals participated in trainings held by IOM in Ptuj and Ljubljana which were delivered by local experts in the field of social care, child protection and public health. Trainees discussed various health-related challenges they experience working with populations in a particularly vulnerable situation, such as migrant children, and how to build the resilience and coping mechanisms of migrants, including through emergency psychosocial assistance and improved intercultural competencies of frontline workers. Moreover, trainings modules on self-care and occupational health were aimed at improving the well-being of trainees who shared many ideas on how to tackle stress at their respective workplaces and contibute to better overall health of their field teams. Participants largely agreed that migration is an increasingly relevant topic for their work and exchanged valuable experiences from field work with migrants in different professional settings and locations across Slovenia. 

The trainings were implemented in the framework of the initative TRAIN4M&H - “Provision of training for first-line health professionals and law enforcement officers working at local level with migrants and refugees”, funded by the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission (DG SANTE) and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (Chafea). TRAIN4M&H is implemented within a tendered initiative coordinated by GIZ in collaboration with IOM as the overall Technical Team Lead and implementer of the majority of the activities, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), École des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP), The Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP), the Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e Malattie Infettive – Università Sapienza Roma and the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER). More information about the initative is available here.