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Description
The project of the Center for Adolescent and Developmental Psychiatry at the Psychiatric clinic of GUH focuses on the support of a multidisciplinary treatment of mental disorders in adolescents and children. This will be accomplished by program enhancement of Daycare, quality improvement of ambulant treatments and education of multidisciplinary team, parents and other caregivers. The Center’s Daycare, currently providing daily therapeutic programs, is a unique institution for diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders of adolescents. The Center’s ambulance provides care for released patients through ambulant treatment. At present, the Center has limited facilities, which cannot be used efficiently due to multiuse and inadequate equipment. Also, the Program in clinic’s garden is limited due to use by other groups of adult patients. The facilities are lacking space for therapy, relaxation, an exercise in a natural environment. Proposed therapeutic relaxation garden and outdoor lecture room will enable to achieve maximum efficiency of the program considering privacy and motivation. The goal of the project is to improve the treatment quality: we will adapt the specific treatment programs to the individual needs of adolescents with mental disorders the expertise. Professional conduct as well as empathy are key to trust and cooperation among patients, parents and health providers. Extended team of health providers will enable a multidisciplinary approach and education through support and training. Within the eight diagnostic themes, we will create education brochures and info leaflets for parents and caregivers and organize an interactive seminar built off the foundation of the brochures for health care providers and the general audience involved in the care of the patients. This will be complemented by a conference organized for experts and an update of Procedures for psychiatric care of children and adolescents. The project is not supported through current partnership
Summary of project results
The implementation of the project fulfilled the set objectives, and the planned activities were successfully completed. The mental health of children is undoubtedly deteriorating due to a number of problematic phenomena such as covid, economic crisis, migration and others. We focused the project on expanding and making the program more attractive in Day care center and educating the multidisciplinary team, the relatives and other caregivers. The project also fulfilled an educational role, through educational materials for family members and other professionals. The plan of educational activities for the multidisciplinary team was adapted to the epidemiological situation. A sports and therapeutic relaxation garden and an outdoor classroom allowed the programme to be implemented to the maximum range, with respect to the privacy and supported the motivation.
Due to an expanded team of health professionals and a multidisciplinary approach, we were able to adapt the programmes to the individual needs of adolescents and fulfil the objectives of the activation programmes for children and adolescents, such as restoring, maintaining and improving work skills and social relationships, improving performance, increasing self-confidence and improving psychological well-being. Last but not least, we have contributed to destigmatizing care and supported the training of a multidisciplinary team of health professionals caring for mentally ill children and adolescents, where expertise and professionalism are key moments to establish trust and cooperation between the patient, his/her parent and the health professional.
The project has expanded the programme of the Day care center, increased the capacity and opened a new therapy group for klients, adolescents with eating disorders, aiming to link the programmes of the different groups of the day hospital for adolescents, although some parts of the therapy require specific activities and individual approach.
The project as a whole has contributed to the promotion of mental health and well-being in children, in particular by expanding of therapeutic spectrum activities and social rehabilitation services and their significant improvement. The programme of the CDVP Day Care Centre is currently designed for a capacity of approximately 150 children per year.
The key point of the project is improvement of the quality of care, adaptation of programmes to the individual needs of adolescents with mental health problems and destigmatization.
The continuous and comprehensive treatment of the mentally ill, combined with barrier-free and non-stigmatising care by trained professionals with empathetic skills, should be sufficient to guarantee, above all, the operational sustainability of the project. The medical documentation of clients/patients, real data from ordering systems, updated program or work schedules of members of multidisciplinary team can be used to assess sustainability.
Improved knowledge of multidisciplinary team, supported by motivation for further action and self-experience activities, contributed to the long-term effect of the project. A major benefit is that the activities are not transient. The big motivation is possibility too create a plan individually using the recent knowledge. The equipment acquired within the project enable more complex techniques and less common activities to be carried out, thus diversifying the programmes for patients, providing sufficient motivational elements for patients and their more active involvement in the programmes. The current state of care for the mentally ill patients in the field of rehabilitation and resocialisation, in the context of the requirements of the ongoing transformation of the field of psychiatry and of the interested public (family members of the patients, relatives), represents the need of long-term sustainability of the proposed project.