The programme START is keeping on
START Programme - originated on 04/05/2015 with the financial support of Norwegian funds (the reconstruct
ion of internal rooms in the building of the former tea house). In four a half a year, more than 450 satisfied patients went through this Programme. Within this period, the Programme has been continuously improved through services and activities offered.
At the same time, we are focused on the quality of life of the people who are at risk in the area of mental health and in the social area. These two areas form an integral part leading to the general recovery.
The important part of the Programme is a humane approach to the patient. There starts a personal-professional relationship (patient - therapist) in which the client's wishes and needs (closeness, presence, listening, empathy, trust, interests, hobbies) are being fulfilled as well as possible.
This approach enables us to carry out the initial and final questionnaire survey with a patient and obtain needed information - the total patient monitoring. Based on obtained information, we suggest to the patient the methods of solving his/her problems (debts, housing, employment, mobilization, etc.).
The Programme therapists were gradually professionally trained and went through the course of psychosocial rehabilitation CARe (comprehensive approach in psychosocial rehabilitation). They participate in the regular meetings of the CARe leavers and apply the obtained knowledge to the Start Programme. This has been improving the Programme all the time. For a period of the existence of the START Programme, we have significantly deepened the cooperation among individual departments. We have managed to interconnect a patient, a Start therapist, a charge nurse, a social worker from the department, a psychologist, external social organization and in individual cases - a member of the patient's family. This cooperation significantly contributes to the shortening of the patient's stay in the PH and allows the patient to return to normal life.
Peer workers are the persons who experienced mental illness and live their happy life full of hope despite all limits caused by the illness. Such a person can be very inspiring for the others facing the illness - they become a living model and hope showing that they can recover as well! Peer workers use their own experience to support other clients and strengthen their hope. We used this service to enrich our START Programme and since mid-2018, we have been cooperating with Marcela, the peer consultant.
One of the other key pillars of the Programme is the cooperation and contact with the regional organizations providing social services. In the scope of the Start Programme, we organize regular trips to Olomouc where the patients can see the premises of individual organizations and meet with the personnel. This is just the preparation for the patients because after they finish their treatment, they can visit these social organizations. This is the way how to secure a support for the patients after their discharge from the Psychiatric hospital to outpatient care and decrease the risk of subsequent failures and return back to the hospital. Some of the former patients, who participated in the programme and were discharged to home care, take part in these trips. This is how they increase their self-confidence and learn how to manage normal situations related to travelling.
During the Programme, we have managed to extend the cooperation with four other social organizations. At this moment, we are cooperating with eight social organizations - Charita Olomouc, InternetPoradna Olomouc, MANA, o.p.s. Olomouc, Podané ruce Olomouc, Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva Šternberk, SOREHA Zábřeh, Zahrada 2000 Jeseník and Vida Šumperk.
The evidence of the patients satisfaction in the START Programme is their subsequent feedback. They inform the therapists about how they manage their life in outpatient care via e-mails, phone calls and in person; they also like talking about their participation in the Programme. A good example is also the regular meeting of the START Programme leavers (the persons who already live their normal life outside the Psychiatric hopsital). This year, there already took place the fourth meeting of START therapists, START leavers, cooperating social organizations and hospitalized patients accompanied by medical staff - the total number of about 100 persons. The aim of this event is to support and motivate the patients in the Psychiatric hospital on their way to recovery, show them the possibility of using the services of present social organizations and see their former mates-patients who manage to live with their illness via outpatient care.
In conclusion, we would like to state the reactions of the patients after they left the START Programme.
I am thankful for experiencing my illness; these moments were the most difficult moments in my life; but I know that they made me a stronger and better person and moved my life forwards. Even though it sounds like a total cliché J. I am not sure at this moment, whether I have ever thanked you for what you did for me in the hospital .... Thank you for giving me a new beginning because I can live my dream now and am incredibly happy.
Have a successful day and a lot of success in the START.
Have a nice day.
Míša
It was a pleasant time! And people were even more pleasant and wonderful. I will remember it for my whole life and it is a pity that it is over. It barely began and is over ... Forever in heart.
Pavlínka
We have just finished the 54th term of the START Programme J
Meeting with the providers of social services in the Psychiatric Hospital Šternberk
In relation to the integration of psychiatric and social care of mentally ill people in the Psychiatric Hospital, Šternberk, another meeting with the providers of regional social services took place on 6 June 2017. Apart from the hospital staff, the representatives of following organization from the Olomouc region took place in the meeting: Charita Olomouc, Mana, o.p.s.,and z.s. InternetPoradna.cz and also the representatives from Advisory Centre for Citizenship/Civil and Human Rights from Šternberk. At the beginning of this meeting, MUDr. Hana Kučerová, the director, informed the participants about the plan to establish the Centre of Mental Health and about the possibility to extent the cooperation. The representatives of cooperating organizations then informed in more details about the current situation of social services provided. The meeting was concluded with a discussion aimed at searching for the possibilities how to increase the quality of cooperation and improve the coordination of social services within the Start Programme. This meeting fulfilled one of the goals of the ongoing Reform of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic: to increase mutual interconnection of health and social services in the area of care of mentally ill people.
Start Programme cooperates with the organizations providing social services
At the beginning of May 2015, the activation and social rehabilitation programme started working in the Psychiatric Hospital Šternberk. This programme should smooth patients return to normal life and improve their ability to take care of themselves. One of the goals of this programme is the effort to connect a patient to the regional social services.
In the course of two years, the network of cooperating social organizations has been gradually expanding. While at the beginning of the programme the patients were in contact with the representatives of three organizations: Mana, o.p.s., Charita Olomouc and Kolumbus, z.s., at present, we also cooperate with Poradna pro občanství/Občanská a lidská práva z.s. from Šternberk (legaladvisory centre), z.s. InternetPoradna.cz from Olomouc and VIDA z.s. from Jeseník.
The patients mostly use the cooperation to sort out debts, housing and work and social benefits. Field services provided to the patients directly in the hospital or after their discharge in their natural environment (home address) are being gradually developed.
The cooperation is more effective, if the closer relationship is developed between a patient and a social worker. The patients can be supported and motivated to manage the demands on everyday life and regular taking of medications step by step. If their state of health worsens, there is a better chance to provide them with needed care earlier and manage their conditions in the outpatient department instead of during longer and more expensive hospitalization.
The Psychiatric Hospital presented Occupational Therapy helping children and adults:
In Šternberské listy (the magazine of the Municipal Authority) published in May, the Psychiatric Hospital presented Occupational Therapy helping children and adults:
http://www.sternberk.eu/images/stories/sternberske-listy/SL_kveten_2017_web.pdf