Friendly Rounds (Družabna vizita)

Name of the activity: Friendly Rounds (Družabna vizita)

Country/NMO: Slovenia (SloMSIC)

Program: Mental Health

Type of the activity: Third Party Activities. Supporting an individual or a group to tackle an issue, either in the form of fundraising (collecting money) or operative work (help with administrative tasks of other organizations or communities).

General description:

4 workshops are organized every month – 2 in the Geriatric clinic and 2 in the Pediatrician clinic. We will contribute to their well-being (mental health) by involving and inviting patients to collaborate in informal activities according to their wishes. We will play cards, board games and teach each other some new ones, create art crafts (Christmas ornaments, celling decorations, greetings cards, jewelry), listen to the music or learn some new songs, etc.). By carrying out the activities menitoned above, we can help to decrease stigmas which surround mental health issues. We also contribute to the knowledge about psychiatry diseases among medical students and raise the awareness about the importance of mental health.

Focus area:

Mental Health advocacy and public awareness

Problem statement:

Our main object of focus is to alienate the stigmatization of psychiatric patients by organizing group workshops of five medical students and approximately ten patients of pediatric or geriatric psychiatry. The preferable achieved goal is to work together on unpretentious relations by group talking, making various crafts (Christmas and Easter ornaments, origami …), singing and playing musical instruments or just by playing group board games.

Target groups:

General population, Medical students, Children, Youth, Elderly people

Beneficiaries:

General population, Medical students, Children, Youth, Elderly people

Objectives and indicators of success:

• Organization of at least 13 workshops with children and adolescents at Pediatric psychiatry and 13 workshops with elderly at Geriatric psychiatry in year 2019

o Indicators of success: number of students who fill in an aplication form for each workshop, survey for students and children/elderly after each workshop.

• Organisation of a movie night for pediatric patients and medical students

o Indicators of success: number of patients and students attending movie nights, survey after the movie night.

Methodology:

We will organize at least 4 workshops every month – 2 at the Geriatric clinic and 2 at the Pediatrician clinic. We will contribute to their well-being (mental health) by involving and inviting patients to collaborate in informal activities according to their wishes. We will play cards, board games and teach each other some new ones, create art crafts (Christmas ornaments, celling decorations, greetings cards, jewelry), listen to the music or learn some new songs, etc.). Furthermore, we will organize a movie night for children at the Pediatric psychiatry and fort he medical students.

Plans for evaluation:

We will regularly organize meetings to evaluate success of individual groups (whether the patients show signs of improvements, etc.) in order to improve our approach to patients accordingly, so that we help as many people as we can in the best way possible. Furthermore, we often receive a direct feedback after carrying out our workshops when being asked about our return and seeing their satisfaction. Occasionally we are being approached by the medical personnel regarding the excitement and enthusiasm of the patients when being told about our arrival.