Stojan Andonov, Macedonia - NGO Welcome presentation at the III SEE MH Policy Forum in Sofia - Bulgaria 2006
The concept of mental health promotion has been developed primary for improvement of mental health services, and moving towards the new concept of mental health treatment in the community.
It understands a summary of various activities for overcoming obstacles that people with mental health disorders have to face everyday. The early objectives were a comprehensive revision of the existing psychiatric services directed towards establishment of tighter links with the users in the community, at the same time by an easy approach, increased quality of services and better social integration and decreasing of the stigma, represents the imperative of today’s time.
The promotion of mental health is being conceptualized with the imposed need for actualizing the condition of the services for the people with mental health problems, emphasizing the needs of people with longer stay in the psychiatric hospitals.
In many countries this concept contributed to improvement, and even humanizing of the mental health system. There are different types of associations, organizations or groups of people that are active in this direction, for example:
- Nongovernmental organizations in the field of mental health,
- Groups of users of services and their families
- Institutions and organizations for human rights
In the course of the last years, these organizations have become more and more active and capable in their work, more and more promoting the concept of treatment in the community as an alternative in the mental health care.
As a result of these processes, the organizations that work in this field actively participate in promotion and application of the new concept of mental health treatment in the community with an evident support from the common population, the professionals in the field of mental health, and more and more governmental institutions, which more often and independently undertake activities. Since recently, more and more this term means promoting of the needs and rights of each person that has had some kind of a psychological crisis, even promotion of the mental health for the whole population.
According to WHO, the popularization of the representation has evidently contributed to changes in the mental health systems in some countries, and the success of the fight against discrimination of these people.
The main activities that are implied under representation are: increasing of the awareness and informing of the common population in the area of mental health, disseminating of information, education, training, forming of groups for self assistance, counseling, mediation and protection of human rights...
These activities are meant for crushing of various barriers such as: lack of adequate mental health services, inadequate financial system for these services, stigma associated with mental disorders, lack of promotional activities, violations of the human rights, lack of programs for housing and employment, non-adequate implementation of the mental health programs…the reduction of these barriers will lead towards an improvement of the public attitude towards these people, putting mental health on the government’s agenda, and final improvement/adoption of official government documents/attitudes that will promote the approach towards the mental health in the community and will legalize the right to have a right for forming of mental health services in the community. In this way, the users of services started to act in an organized way and to ask for services in an organized way in accordance with their needs, and to be more involved in the decision making processes.
THE WORK OF ASSOCIATION FENIX IN TUZLA - BIH
Mr. Vahid Djulovic presentation at the III SEE MH Policy Forum in Sofia - Bulgaria 2006
The association Fenix TK has been functioning from April 2000.
The association’s mission is the improvement of the quality of living of the users of the mental health services. The mission of the association is the creation and establishment of the mental health program, education of the users in the field of human rights, education on the users’ movement, destigmatization of the mentally ill, establishing boarding houses(for the homeless), protection houses and creation of the social cooperatives.
Training and education for operating an association was given to us from the Hamlet trust-London and we are members of that organization.
The association performs:
-counseling with the help of mental health professionals
-counseling concerning psychological issues
-counseling concerning social and work-related issues, establishing communication, and family issues
-creative expression workshops are very important
-occupational workshops
-every-day socializing
Apart from these regular activities, we have had exhibitions of the work of art by our users (on the World Health Day, Human Rights Day, and the Mental Health Week. It was organized with the assistance of the Psychiatrists’ Association. We must state that the association Fenix TK improves its field of action every day. For example, we have organized round-table discussion and public discussions not only on important dates, such as the Human Rights Day. In 2004 we have organized a public discussion “Spirituality and Mental Health” that included neuropsychiatries and religious institutions from the Tuzla Canton. The second public discussion organized in the year 2004 was named “Mental Health Prevention”. It was organized with the assistance of the students of the final years of the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy of the Faculty of Philosophy in Tuzla. We are very proud of that, because we believe that the young can, with the help of the experienced professionals, control the issues brought by the transition of the society and the reforms.
All these activities had very good media coverage, a good cooperation with the media. We were hosted every day in the local media, and our association has also been mentioned on the national radio station.
With the help of the Hamlet Trust two programs have been put into action:
-Quality of the mental health users’ living on the Tuzla Canton area
(The results of the program have been presented in public and to the experts.)
-Education and training for establishing Fenix TK branches
A project on cleaning of the city of Tuzla has been performed together with the organization “Friends of Bosnia”. During that project we have earned equipment worth 13000 KM (motocultivator, carpenters equipment and a copying machine).
Organization “Friends of Bosnia” have also donated us a lorry that is used for visiting the users, organization of field trips and other activities.
The association Fenix TK is a member of the Reference group Tuzla, group 63 NGO, as a part of the psycho-social support.
We are a member of the European users’ network and a member of the federal network in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The association Fenix TK is an independent organization, hiring three professionals (beneficiaries of mental health services), and we are trying to stay non-governmental, which we hope to succeed.
