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Aim: Among children who receive hospital care, preterm infants are Europe's largest group, whose numbers are continually increasing. Currently, no pan‐European standards of care for preterm or critically ill infants are available, except for a few specific topics, and practices vary widely in different regions. Methods: The European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI) has initiated a transdisciplinary collaboration project to provide agreed standards for high‐quality perinatal and neonatal care, whose implementation will ensure fairer and more equitable care across Europe. This will improve care for these vulnerable infants and their families, ameliorate the long‐term conditions found in preterm and critically ill infants and enhance the quality of family life of affected families. More than 220 experts—healthcare professionals, patient representatives and other relevant stakeholders—have come together for the first time to develop a broad reference guidance in neonatology and associated fields. Results: Ninety‐six standards on 11 overarching topic areas were developed and endorsed. Conclusion: This reference framework serves as a basis for the development of binding national standards for high‐quality care. A robust translation and implementation strategy is facilitated, with the goal of improved health outcomes following preterm birth all around Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELSiTO (Empowering Learning for Social Inclusion Through Occupation), an international collaborative partnership, with over 30 members from Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands, aimed to explore the nature and processes of social inclusion for persons experiencing mental illness. Members included persons experiencing mental illness and health professionals. Four international visits and local activities enabled a knowledge creation process that combined the experience of social inclusion as we lived and worked together with exploration of the processes of community projects, narratives of experiences and reflective workshops. Outcomes included identification and description of the following: the nature of social inclusion as lived by the participants; the critical elements that support inclusion; and the competences that are developed by all stakeholders during this process. The complex process of social inclusion is facilitated by doing together in environments that enable equality, trust, risk taking and realignment of power. These conceptual understandings of inclusion are discussed in relation to the ongoing activities of the partners, to their potential contribution to the education of occupational therapists (and other professionals) and to the development of socially inclusive occupation-based projects in the community. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1993, a European collaboration on the efficiency of psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with Eating Disorders was initiated. The European Union supported it under the name COST Action B6 from 1994–2001. This unique opportunity to co-ordinate research and to exchange clinical experience eventually attracted more than 200 researchers and clinicians from 19 European countries. This is the first paper of a series of five through which we report on the general background, the organizational structure, the objectives, the design, the main findings, and specific methodological developments of COST Action B6. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]