Peer activities

Project facts

Project promoter:
Civic association Dobré místo
Project Number:
CZ11-0030
Target groups
People with mental health problems
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€45,767
Final project cost:
€45,433
From Norway Grants:
€ 40,890
The project is carried out in:
Praha

More information

Description

There is lack of activities (services) provided by people who have personal experience with mental illness. The project is going to offer to patients hospitalized in psychiatric hospital Bohnice cultural, social and leisure activities that will be implemented and co-organized by peer workers. The main objective of the project is destigmatization of mentally ill people focused on three areas: social, personal and cultural. The project aims at 1) Support of creative activities of people with serious mental illness and public presentation of their activities in the frame of destigmatisation campaign; 2) Realisation of theatrical, literary and publicity workshops, theatrical performances, author´s readings, expositions and discussions, development of peer activities in the cooperation with psychiatric hospital Bohnice; 3) Engagement of mentally ill patients in the destigmatisation campaign, public awareness-raising. The primary target group consist of mentally ill patients who participate at workshops. Secondary target group consist of all mentally ill patients and their families who face stigmatization. Tertiary target group is the wide public.

Summary of project results

The aim of the project was to offer people with serious mental illness the opportunity to apply their own creativity in creative workshops led by peer counselors (people with their own experience of mental illness). Three workshops were created - literary, theatrical and journalistic. All three workshops worked very successfully. The workshops were held once a week in the premises of the Bohnice Psychiatric Hospital from May 2015 to June 2016. Dozens of interested parties participated regularly. The literary workshop was attended by a circle of approximately 15 permanent participants. More than 30 participants, most of them currently hospitalized in PN Bohnice, went through the journalistic workshop. The theater workshop was attended by about fifteen people, with a permanent set of less than ten people. The Journalistic Workshop held talks on topical issues related to the lives of people with mental illness, the level of current psychiatric care and the forthcoming reform. The papers were processed in the form of articles and published in the media. The successful journalistic texts of the workshop participants were also published in the media. The Literary Workshop held a number of public readings. Literary workshop activities were reported by the participants in literary journals and other media. The selection of poems and short stories in connection with the literary workshop was published as a separate publication entitled Skřípění (Screeching). The members of the theater workshop performed with several performances of their own also within the framework of Bohnice Indian Summer (Babí léto) and three other Prague festivals.

Summary of bilateral results