Is mental illness an end of life, a death of a career?
i know it doesn't have to be.
Career is not everything, ill people can be beneficial even when they are unemployed ... but i think working helps - both the ill person itself, as well as others - if work is not immoral.
Laziness & severing social contacts makes symptoms worsen, lack of money takes away independence & access to many tools for benefitting others. Working professionally can be therapeutic as well - it's contact with others, a motivation for caring for oneself & a source of money among other things - but too much of stress & overworking has opposite effect. Working people have better self-esteem, and can use money to help others as well.
i know i'll share my income with noble causes once i am employed.
i've enlisted on a 'Ex-In' (Experience Involved) course, to be a psychotherapist in future.
It's an international european union's project targeted for mentally ill people.
It was tested & proven success in many nations including Germany - therapies that combined Ex-Ins paired with healthy therapists had more of therapeutical successes than therapies with psychotherapists without illness experiences only.
Project Ex-In tries to involve people after psychological crisis into a psychological support network - we will use our knowledge of mental illness that we have (we know a lot of it, we experience it every day), we will use training exerices (not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical techniques of a therapy) that will fill educational gaps & give us tools.
We will help other mentally ill people, sharing our best experiences, sharing best we have learned in life as well as on a course - both from qualified instructors, but also we'll use best tricks of other students; we will use reason & proven methods of dealing with symptoms, mental illness & associated problems. We will look for employment after the course & after internships are over.
First 8 of 240 planned hours passed today, i will share soon what i can about it. It was a great time, with a lot of positive people, with a lot of positive energy. Privacy & confidentiality are important - we agreed to not reveal group dynamics, names, photos & personal experiences of people involved, but we can share ideas about course, it's methods & goals.
Course is free - it's financed by European Union & 'Leonardo' Foundation, will last until December - it is composed of 10 modules, each lasting for 3 days, 8 hours each day.
Paid internships will happen later, lasting for 6 months in total.
Then we'll be able to look for work, with support of the project's organizers.
i've enlisted for this course to help other people, to improve my karma (i am a Buddhist), as well as to find employment & earn money.
it's also a destigmatisation project, i think this is fairly important as well.
'Every being, no matter healthy or ill - is equally important & valuable' - following & paraphrasing words of one of my therapists.
We do not wish to be better or worse than healthy people, we want equal chances & equal treatment for everyone.
Course consists of 10 modules - each lasting for 3 days, 8 hours each day:
1. Health & Good Mood; Getting to know each other.
Discovering & understanding what is health, discovering what is healthy lifestyle, formulating personal strategies that serve improving psychological health and improving relations with family & social network.
2. Empowerment.
Getting familiar and increasing feeling of inner strength, finding ourselves in everyday life situations, gaining & practicing decision making skills, and negotiating & keeping 'contracts' with other people.
3. Experience & Participation.
Supporting process of being aware of thoughts and behaviors associated with experiences during psychic illness periods, gaining skill of 'reflection' and acquiring 'insight' by talking about ourselves in a group, and by listening to other people.
4. Getting Healthier.
Increasing awareness and reflection on one's own history of getting ill and getting healthier, acquiring knowledge of processess that support getting healthier and about people who regained health; making decision & active entrance into a process of planning one's own getting-healthy-plan.
5. Trialog.
Understanding value of trialog, of cooperation with: a. person with mental ilness experience, b. her or his family and social network, c. professionals (doctor, therapist); this cooperation gives opportunity to discover differing perspectives and views on the same occurances, and in consequence acquiring possibility of getting more effective support on a way to being healthy.
6. Self-Discovery.
Therapists usually don't talk with their clients about their psychotic symptoms, because there's possibility of invoking psychotic symptoms' conents returns. In a consequence, we attempt to treat ill person in a way that does not touch directly neither these painful experiences, nor consequences of illness. Most of people who experiences psychological crisis has a feeling that traditional psychiatry does not perceive and does not understand their experiences, and in fact adds to their distance from society more than it did help. Experiencing symptoms has it's meaning however. Traditional psychiatric operations are focused on limits resulting from illness, instead of supporting patient's need to influence his or her own getting-healthier-process. By the end of this module, participants will be able to share and write about their own mental illness experiences, in a consistent, understandable and structured way; they will get acquainted with various approaches and models that explain psychic disturbances; they will understand basic rules of performing interview that explores one's own experience; will be able to understand better their own experiences associated with mental illness (especially so called psychotic experiences, especially about so called 'hearing voices').
7. Advocacy for mentally ill people.
Equipping people with mental illness experience with neccessary knowlege, skills and competences, required for fulfilling role of advocacy for mentally ill people (for example, by creating associations, leading educational activities, and other), in a way that will allow them to have a real influence on introducing and shaping changes in a healthcare system, in a way that beneficiary's voice is heard when decisions fall - so therapeutic activities are best suited for patients' needs.
8. Rating the Getting-Healthier Process.
Module allows participants of the course to develop knowledge and skills needed for accompanying other people that are experiencing a crisis, to familiarize & understand their situation, to be able to support them with making plans for future and rate getting-healthier process (of their own and of others). Module has also a goal of helping people with mental illness experience to order & structure their thoughts, feelings and to give meaning to experiences resulting from mental illness. It's to teach about introducing best planning strategies for building relations with other people, that will be useful in continuing self-development process.
9. Companionship & Support.
In the Western World, since a long time people with mental illness experience (in remission) are professionally active both in psychological health institutions, advisory, and in influencing quality of psychiatric services. This activity is based on a thought that a person who experienced mental illness understands needs and expectations of his or her own, and of other people touched by the same illness. Supporting person, who is based on his or her own experiences can serve as a positive example model. These people are independent and fulfill role of an expert, who in a way intermediates between professionals (doctors, therapists) and ill people. A person in remission explains and shares knowledge of methods and behaviors that were useful in a getting-healthier process. By the module's end, participants will know rules of supporting mentally ill people, will acquire varied knowledge and meaning of using it in a process of supporting by communication and work put into building relations; Will be able to reflect upon their own style of supporting others.
10. Intervention during a crisis.
Goal of this module is participants acquiring skill of safe performance in a crisis situation, develop empathy, understanding of a crisis and going through difficult life situations. Additional goal is learning of how to support other people who experience different types of crises.
For more about project (in a polish language), feel free to visit: a page.
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