For Healing Souls

About this project

<p>According to surveys one in five Czechs suffers from some form of mental illness, and up to half of patients develop symptoms before the age of 14. The National Action Plan for Mental Health, therefore, defines the need for early prevention at schools.</p> <p>Prevention in the CR focuses mainly on behavioral symptoms, such as bullying, truancy, drugs, etc., however, universally targeted prevention focused on mental health is not systematically available. The solution is to create so-called multidisciplinary teams composed of child psychiatrists, psychologists, special teachers, social workers, and nurses.</p> <p>The proposed project aims to improve the situation of children and teenagers at risk of the emergence, escalation, or chronification of mental problems. Through MDteam and in cooperation with schools and other experts, we will create a support network of services in the Pardubice and Olomouc regions, where we will test the format of MDT's work on at least 200 cases resolved in schools, we will establish long-term cooperation with.</p> <p>Based on the experience of the foreign partner of the project, the care provided by MDT will be qualitatively different from the care available in the current system of services in the CR. The services of MDT will newly cover areas outside health care. Our project will introduce a measure that will enable a pilot connection of health care and registered social services into one targeted client plan.</p> <p>An integral part of the project will be educational activities leading to the destigmatization of the topic and reflecting the most pressing areas of children´s mental health viewed from the position of schools, teachers, parents as well as children themselves. For this part of the project, we will use the DIPEx methodology developed at The Oxford University, which uses in-depth interviews. The originality of the solution lies in the involvement of the participants in the cases in the creation of a reliable online source of information.</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The Norwegian partner provided with his advice new approaches in the field of mental health of children and adolescents. It included modern therapeutic methods and innovative procedures that were implemented in practice. Meetings were organized and allowed Czech experts to get to know the best Norwegian ones practices. The Norwegian partner led an interactive workshop where he shared his experiences and specifics case studies. Several Czech experts had the opportunity to complete an internship in Norway, where directly observed the work of Norwegian colleagues and gained practical experience from Norwegian institutions focused on mental health of children and adolescents. The Norwegian partner also actively collaborated on the development of the Handbook good practice. He brought his expertise and approaches to the project, which were integrated into the final version of the handbook.

Project partners

• Nordland County Council Donor project partner· Norway
• EDDA, registered institute Project partner· Czechia