Description
In the less developed regions of Slovenia there is a clear gap in services for long term ill that could prevent and treat mental health problems that may consequently occur. The aim of the project is to form partnership among NGO's (offering support), local hospital (where support is needed) and faculties for psychotherapy (offering knowledge for efficient support) in order to empower the ill and their families. Besides organisation and setup of a new social service, major project outcomes are activation of target groups, raising awareness of equality in different project outputs: mental first aid office, ongoing psychotherapy groups, family counseling and psychotherapy for the ill and their families. It is expected that cancer patients, long term ill children and youth and families will benefit substantially through the project - as will health-care workers and psychotherapy students, who will acquire new skills.
Summary of project results
Psychotherapy and support for long-term ill people is still not very well accepted by public. The prejudices and stereotypes are still very much alive and people who use it are often faced with the lack of understanding. So the first challenge of the project promoters was to overcome this stereotypes and convince people that seeking help and support is the right thing and having psychotherapy is OK. The project promoters managed to form partnership with all key stakeholders. They expanded their service to other regions as well (Ljubljana and Maribor). The first couple of months they faced difficulties on reaching out to patients but then with some additional promotional and awareness raising activities, that has changed. They reached their goals and are now still offering their services to beneficiaries. Their program was supported by the Ministry of Health.
Summary of bilateral results
The cooperation between partners was on-going during the full course of the project implementation. It's main benefit was in the process of program development where the experiences of the partner were very useful. The partner contributed significantly to the final design of the support provided to ill people and their relatives. Based on their long-term experiences partner organization provided support during the program implementation and give the project promoter tips on how to overreach stereotypes and obstacles.