"Between July 2 and 6, 2025, we had the pleasure of welcoming four colleagues to Budapest for an informal follow-up visit after getting to know each other during the first wave of the EU-PROMENS Exchange Programme in Zagreb in the autumn of 2024. Our guests were: Anne Pelzer, a passionate child and adolescent psychiatrist from the Netherlands; Harm Thiessens, a social psychiatric nurse in the Royal Dutch Army; Melanie Lutz, a health educator and dance movement therapist from Germany; Serena van Steen, a psychiatric nurse working in a clinic for patients with severe psychiatric illnesses in the Netherlands.

We started our visit at the pediatric psychiatry department of Bethesda Hospital. Since Anne had recently become the head of an outpatient psychiatric clinic for 250 patients aged 18–35, this visit led to a particularly rich and engaging discussion among the professionals. What did we talk about? Besides visiting therapy rooms, the Hungarian team and our guests exchanged ideas on several important topics:

• How TFP (Transference-Focused Psychotherapy) could be integrated into Bethesda’s work;

• Communication with parents and their role in therapy;

• Duration of hospital stays and the structure of outpatient care;

• Mentalization-based therapy - group or individual?

The Dutch colleagues are more familiar with mentalization therapy and were curious about the Hungarian experience with TFP. How professionals maintain a therapeutic framework and most importantly, how they motivate children. Anne had recently written a book on motivating hospitalised children, which greatly interested our Hungarian colleagues. She offered to send them the Dutch version and an AI translation into Hungarian is already being planned.

Later in the week, on Friday, Harm Thiessens gave a lecture at the LOKA office titled “The Place of the Social Psychiatric Nurse in the Mental Health System of the Royal Netherlands Army.” The event was attended by Hungarian academics, police officers, and army psychologists and was followed by a lively discussion.

Throughout the visit, our international colleagues expressed genuine admiration for the way Hungarian professionals work - with heart, creativity, and dedication, making the most of their resources. It was a truly inspiring few days. We had a great time together and learned a lot from one another. " 

"Participating in programmes like EU-PROMENS is so powerful because each participant is totally immersed in local practices abroad. It offers a new perspective on my daily reality and broadens my view. Thanks to this immersive program, I can learn from other professionals in the field. In that way we can develop new approaches and visions of health & well-being together." 

"The most immediate impact has been being connected with people from the CEE region. Some of the people I got to know through the project either participants or speakers have become part of our Let's CEE youth mental health network. I managed to engage some of them in an ongoing project with Orygen and the Wellcome Trust."

"Thank you all for the opportunity to participate in such important event, which in the mental health field has a stronger personal impact and on the international level. It validates such practice and raises many issues!"

"I have been able to share my experiences and acquired knowledge in our local municipality of Saaremaa. Also, in an institution supporting children and families (Saaremaa Supportive Education Center). I was able to share good practices with social workers, child protection specialists, social pedagogues, special pedagogues, support persons, etc.

In my daily work, I have been able to use the knowledge I gained during the exchange visit regarding mental health services and their development. I also have the chance to speak up and think more and more in this field and give my insight.

I highly recommend the opportunities and programs offered by EU-PROMENS with the aim of broadening your horizons and seeing problems and solutions from a different perspective. Sharing experiences with other participants was very informative. All these contacts are of high value in terms of cooperation and I hope that they can be used if possible, especially in terms of sharing knowledge and experience."

“I really enjoyed the exchange. it was great to be able to see how other countries’ mental health services work and also to give examples, comments or suggestions based on how our services works.

It has been a great opportunity to talk to the other participants from the other EU countries about our various roles challenges and rewarding sides of the work we are doing. I have been in contact with some of the participants since returning home and are planning some work together in the future around peer support and lived experience which is not something I had even thought would happen. Could be some exciting collaboration work to come. “

 "The EU-PROMENS Mental Health exchange visit was a great opportunity for me to improve my knowledge in this field, to find new and accurate information, to create a European network of professionals that we keep in contact even after the exchange finished and to improve my daily activities, including the gained abilities in my daily practice. And, behind all these, I found veritable friends that I can count on in any professional situation, that's why I'm thankful for the opportunity."