Thanks to €400 000 from the Norway Grants, a new multifunctional education and training centre has been established in the reconstructed former church of St. Wenceslas. It will serve as a centre for drug abuse prevention, with the aim to reducing and preventing the risk of drug abuse among people with psychiatric disorders. The new education and training centre will be operated in cooperation with the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, Prague, and White Light I, an association specialising in drug abuse prevention.
Due to their mental condition, psychiatric patients are especially vulnerable to drug addiction and abuse. The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre in Horní Beřkovice offers complete treatment of psychiatric disorders, and is the only institution in the Czech Republic to run drug abuse prevention programmes aimed at psychiatric patients. Several treatment methods are utilised, including drama therapy.
New multifunctional centre
The new educational centre is equipped with modern audiovisual technology, has wheelchair access and offers space for 129 spectators. It will be used to host concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events, in addition to seminars, workshops and conferences for health care and drug prevention professionals. The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre is already organising "Berkovice Spring" and "Berkovice Summer", therapeutic cultural events fostering the reintegration of patients into society. With the new multifunctional hall in place, the Centre’s patient oriented cultural activities will increase.
The completion of the new multifunctional premises means that the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre now will be able to expand its activities to include drug prevention programmes aimed at schools, teachers and parents in the region.