DUAL CAREERS FOR MENTAL HEALTH

Dual Careers for Mental Health (1/1/2021 - 31/12/2022) aims at optimizing mental health services within European dual career organizations. The project brings together a consortium of more than 30 experts on mental health and dual career representing 10 organizations from 6 Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden). The consortium includes a range of different organizations (i.e. national sport governing bodies, high performance center, elite sport club, universities, sport gymnasium, health institute) and spans both secondary education and higher education. DC4MH is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Sport programme of the European Commission, and led by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (prof. dr. Paul Wylleman, prof. dr. Koen De Brandt, dr. Jolan Kegelaers, and dr. Simon Defruyt).

The specific objectives of DC4MH were to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based mental health promotion recommendations and tools, centered around four pillars.

The recommendations and tools developed and implemented within this project allow DC organizations to optimize their support services and facilitate a healthy combination of high-level sports and education. 

DC4MH and its outcomes aim to make an impact by bringing direct added value to dual career practice, research and policy by: 

• promoting and increasing awareness on the topic of dual career and mental health, 

• providing opportunities to develop a detailed understanding of dual career and mental health, 

• increasing and enhancing opportunities for the evaluation and development of DC athletes’ and DC stakeholders’ competencies, 

• increasing and enhancing opportunities for the evaluation and optimization of DC support services, and

• facilitating cooperation related to dual career and mental health between sport, education and health stakeholders.