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Description
The general aim of the project is to promote and stabilize the patient organisation “Studio 27 - focused on the soul” and make possible the realization of its mission to employ people with mental health problems in intellectual positions. By means of the original edifying informational campaign “PEER helps” to act on change of the public attitudes towards the psychiatry patients, to change the power distribution in the mental health care from the hierarchical one to the equal one and strengthen the position of peer workers in the system.
The peers in Czechia are a relatively new and yet established feature of the system of mental health care. Currently 150 of them work in several types of positions.
The peers give unique contribution to the mental health discussion based on their personal experience with the illness and their way to recovery. We are independent video journalists. We intend to acquire further education and expert consultations by our partners, Fokus Praha and P3.
Many times we have stood both behind the camera and in front of it. From the emancipation of our voice we made a shift to the promotion of the whole community of mental health patients.
On the basis of our research the peers are ready to come out with their stories to the public. Strengthening of peer workers and their mission will lead to the rehabilitation of patients’ view, to the establishment of trust and belonging between patients with mental problems. Thus we will contribute to the social change, whose necessity everyone proclaims, but no one knows how it should occur. We will increase the public awareness about mental health with attention to the peer movement personalities.
The project of Studio 27 is also in accordance with the National action plan for mental health 2020-30. We take part in the efforts for a community-based and democratic approach to the mental health issues, by means of enlightenment and promotion of this area we achieve a discreet, but deep change.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to support and stabilize the patient organization Studio 27 - Focus on the Soul, and thus enable it to carry out its mission - employing people with mental health issues in intellectual positions. Through the original awareness campaign "PEER helps," the project also aimed to change public attitudes towards psychiatric patients and strengthen the position of peer workers within the system.The biggest challenge was whether there would be enough courageous peer workers willing to step out of anonymity and participate in our information campaign. This concern ultimately proved unfounded, and we were pleasantly surprised by the interest in leading the campaign and sharing their stories and experiences.The second challenge was the potential lack of public interest in the media campaign topic, but in the end, the interest exceeded our expectations. The illness of a team member was also a risk we were aware of. This problem did arise during the project, but thanks to good planning of activities and the flexibility of individual workers, we managed everything successfully.
As part of the project, we carried out a total of 5 different activities. Within the activity of Strengthening Personnel Capacities, we created new job positions for a Project Manager, a Financial Manager, a Shooting and Discussions Coordinator, a Moderator and Editor, two Video Production Workers, two PR Workers, a Graphic Designer, a Web Programmer, two Photographers, and a Webmaster.Another activity was the Education of Workers and Members of the Studio 27 - Focus on the Soul association. In this activity, we conducted training in management and financial management, PR and social media, video editing and filming, and we also utilized mentoring on the functioning of the association. We also participated in supervision meetings.During the project, we conducted an Awareness Information Campaign called #PEERhelps. For 14 days, we exhibited destigmatization and awareness posters featuring peer workers in the Prague metro. Interested individuals could learn more by scanning the QR code on the poster. However, to carry out this photo campaign, we first had to contact and photograph the campaign participants, process the photos into six poster designs, and finalize a contract for the campaign with the company operating advertising in the Prague metro.In addition, we recorded interviews and wrote the stories of each campaign participant, which we published on our website and social media. We also made two videos about the entire campaign and held a press conference at the beginning of the photo campaign. The entire information campaign was heavily supported by social media promotion.Furthermore, we organized, recorded, edited, and published discussions and interviews, and wrote and published articles. Our graphic designer also created a new visual identity for our association, and our webmaster and web programmer renovated the website and created web administration, so we could manage the site ourselves.One of the significant changes in the project was the later hiring of workers due to budget provisionality and also exceeding some indicators.
The purpose of the project was to support the patient organization Studio 27 - Focus on the Soul by increasing the organization''s personnel capacity and ensuring educational activities for employees. Within the activity of Strengthening Personnel Capacities, we created new job positions. As a result, we created a total of 13 positions. Another activity was the Education of Workers and Members of the Studio 27 - Focus on the Soul association. We provided training for a total of 6 workers of our organization, completed 24 hours of mentoring on the functioning of the association, and also 11 supervision meetings.The project also aims to raise public awareness about the organization''s activities and the importance of strengthening the role of patients through an awareness campaign. During the project, we conducted an Awareness Information Campaign called #PEERhelps. For 14 days, we exhibited destigmatization and awareness posters with peer workers (6 different posters) on 30 CityLight panels in the Prague metro. Interested individuals could learn more by scanning the QR code on the poster. Due to this photo campaign, the traffic to our website increased from approximately 20 unique visits to about 150.In addition, we recorded interviews and wrote the stories of each photo campaign participant, which we published on our website and social media. We also made 2 videos about the entire campaign and held 1 press conference at the beginning of the photo campaign. The entire information campaign was heavily supported by social media promotion (106 posts, of which 17 were boosted by Facebook ads, and 12 newsletters). Furthermore, we organized, recorded, edited, and published 14 well-attended discussions, 16 interviews, and wrote and published 34 articles.Our graphic designer also created a new visual identity for our association. We had 1400 flyers and 3 roll-ups made. Our webmaster and web programmer renovated the website, added 2 new sections, and created web administration so we could manage the site ourselves.