SBS
Step by Step
Priority Axis
Technological and Social InnovationSpecific objective
Social Innovation
Lead partner
The Health and Europe CentreContact
Date de début
01/09/2017Date de fin
28/02/2022Project budget
4 336 652 €ERDF amount
2 601 991 €ERDF rate
60%À propos
Common challenge
Men’s health & wellbeing is suffering across the 2 Seas area with high & increasing suicide/depression rates. Their suicide rates across Europe are increasing and unemployment, non-participation, isolation & poor mental health are all contributing factors.
At the project’s approval, there was a lack of suicide prevention services in the 2 Seas area; rates in Kent had been rising and Flanders had the one of highest suicide rate in Europe. In the Netherlands, the rate was 25% higher than in 2007 and Nord-Pas-de-Calais had the second highest men’s mortality ratio in France. Depression & other mental health problems were under detected/treated. Unemployment in partner regions ran above the 2 Seas average.
By treating men in the community & avoiding costly hospital admissions, SBS aimed to save 10% of this cost in the target population group (6000 men). Outreach work conducted by partners had shown that men perceived a clear need for a different way of providing services to them within their local communities.
Overall objective
Main outputs
Cross border approach
Main Achievements
The primary achievement was the successful completion of the project, with all the Outputs delivered.
The health and employment models were published in legacy document form in late 2021. Coupled with the shed model, they formed the core of the documentation which other regions, providers and Sheds could pick up and used to deliver more "third generation" (or SBS) Sheds. The website will remain live for up to 10 years.
The evaluation report was published in all three languages and reached significant numbers of policy makers and relevant organisations.
The Final Conference, held online, attracted several hundreds of participants in presence and online. The recording is on the project website, where more people have been able to view it, and will be able to do so over the coming years. The event was a positive projection of the need for the project, and for what it achieved, focusing on the Outputs, and with several keynote speakers adding real value. Shedder content was included via professional videos of their work.
The partnership continued to thrive dynamically, with all project partners on board, right until the end of the project. Whilst the SBS partners would have loved a higher degree of in-person interaction (between each other, between countries, between Shedders and professionals), the quality of collaboration in the context of 2 years of COVID has been excellent.
Much of the learning from SBS is currently inspiring discussions for two NWE Interreg projects for the new programming period, potentially including some partners from SBS.