IPS Europe Learning Community
- This webpage is for the IPS European Learning Community to access resources and share learning. This webpage also provides information on upcoming events, training and resources. :
International Learning Community
At the beginning of the new century many started to ask – can the magic of IPS be as effective within a Europe context?
We had early local champions for IPS in England, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The EQOLISE study, a multi-country RCT was commissioned in 2007 to test IPS in 6 European countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK.
The study delivered excellent results, despite extensive differences from USA in labour market regulations, varying (generally) higher unemployment rates and welfare benefits and in the organization and culture of mental health services.
The 2007 EQOLISE findings spurred the expansion of IPS across Europe at different paces in each European country. Furthermore, following on the EQOLISE study, a growing number of countries started to further evaluate IPS with formal RCTs and local pilots and implement.
Factors that stimulated the growth of IPS have been identified as:
- The impact of local IPS research studies
- Local champions and dedicated national leaders
- Participating in the international IPS Learning Community
- Fidelity monitoring
Finally, the success of the IPS Learning Community has been an inspiration to IPS advocates outside the USA, modelling effective IPS implementation strategies and the power of peer learning.
The Europe IPS Learning Community was formed in 2018 and aims to provide a voice and focus of quality scaling of IPS across the European Continent.