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Description
The reform described in the National Mental Health Program means a transition from the asylum (services accumulated in large clinics) and biomedical model (mental problem - physical illness and sufficiency of pharmacotherapy) to environmental psychiatry (biopsychosocial model of disorders, assistance near the home, mental problem - a problem in life). A Supreme Audit Office (NIK) Health Department report (2015) found that psychiatrists have insufficient skills. Also, there is concern that they are not trained to work in interdisciplinary teams created in mental health clinics.The project aims to provide support for the ongoing reform of the mental health system by promulgating human aspects of psychiatry, philosophy of psychiatry, and value-based practice.We will devise and conduct, involving experts through know-how: Three courses on Philosophy of Psychiatry as a Basis for Practice for medical students, three Value-based Practice Workshops for interdisciplinary teams (medical personnel, social workers, patients and recipients of social support), and five webinars promulgating mental health philosophy and ethics for a broad group. We will also evaluate the activities and disseminate the findings (two articles, a closing seminar, and sending the results to psychiatric reform institutions).The measures will improve the quality of psychiatric services, give psychiatrists new qualifications and competencies, and expand the courses available in medical studies, and inspire institutional change in this respect;Nine people will participate, including a female expert through know-how. The recipients will be 60 students, 30 members of interdisciplinary teams, and 150 webinar participants.The partner will provide scientific support in all of the program measures.
Summary of project results
The reform of psychiatry described in the National Mental Health Program is currently being piloted in Poland, with a shift from an asylum model (assuming the accumulation of services in large centres) and a biomedical model (reducing mental difficulties to physical illness and pharmacotherapy) to a community psychiatry model. Community psychiatry is based on the provision of care close to home in local mental health centres and sees mental difficulties as a life problem that patients are helped to resolve by multidisciplinary teams. Conclusions from the report of the Department of Health of the Supreme Audit Office (2015) indicate an unsatisfactory level of qualification of doctors to implement the described system. Psychiatrists do not have the training to work in the interdisciplinary teams that are being set up in mental health centres.
The project included a number of educational activities aimed at different groups involved in the mental health system. Three online courses in philosophy and psychiatry were run for medical students, consisting of 16 thematic blocks taught by a total of 25 people specialising in philosophy, psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy and anthropology. A total of 250 people attended the courses and 65 graduated. The main innovation of the project was the development of the first Polish workshops on value-based practice (a set of tools to help practitioners in situations of value conflicts so characteristic of mental health issues): 3 full-day workshops were prepared and held, with 29 participants. A webinar on the use of philosophy in the clinical practice of psychotherapists was of great interest, with over 250 participants. The project concluded with the IXth Open Philosophical and Psychiatric Seminar conference ''Education and Values''. It was attended by almost 100 researchers, practitioners and patients from all over Poland.
As a result of the project, medical students - future professionals and specialists in the field of mental health - improved their qualifications and developed their competences in working with patients in mental crisis. Psychologists and psychotherapists participating in the webinar received concrete and innovative tools for their psychotherapeutic work. The activities planned and implemented as part of the project supported the implementation of the reform and inspired the medical community for further system changes.