The project “The best of Care for Healthier Romanian Children” is promoted by Save the Children Norway in partnership with Save the Children Romania. The project aims at promoting mental health and improving the quality of care for vulnerable children and adolescents through development of psychosocial services.
30/07/2010
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By the end of the project:
- more children will able to benefit from their own resources to function in society at their best potential (emotional, cognitive, social, physical);
- more professionals will have increased capacity in working with children in need of mental health services;
- professionals and parents will have a better understanding of children vulnerability, obvious in changed attitudes and behaviours related to their situations.
Project’s main activities are implemented within the Centre for Emotional and Behavioural Education for Children, a friendly, accessible and non stigmatising facility where children, adolescents and their families benefit from evaluation, counselling and psychotherapy services for the most frequent mental health problems.
The primary focus in the project is on delivering direct client service in the centre. During this period the following psychosocial services have been delivered to 332 beneficiaries - children:
- individual evaluation and psychotherapy intervention;
- group therapy for teenagers (aged 16-18) diagnosed with social anxiety (10-12 sessions);
- group therapy for preteens (aged 11-13) diagnosed with generalised and social anxiety (10-12 sessions);
- program for social abilities development for school aged children;
- program for social and emotional abilities development for preschool aged children;
- complex social intervention for children coming from social disadvantaged families;
Evaluation service was also delivered in the centre for the 196 students, subjects in the pilot bullying prevention programme, “Meetings without backpacks” implemented during February – May 2010 in “Timotei Cipariu” National College.
During this period psychosocial services have been delivered to 50 beneficiaries – parents, such as:
- individual evaluation and psychotherapy intervention;
- parental abilities development groups.
The project also developed a strong capacity building component. A series of 4 training courses for professional network in Bucharest (psychiatrists and clinical psychologists) were delivered on the topics:
1. Depression: evaluation, diagnostic, intervention;
2. Anxiety disorders (separation anxiety, generalised anxiety, social anxiety and school refusal, specific phobias, panic attacks) – evaluation and treatment;
3. ADHD and ADD: evaluation, diagnostic, intervention;
4. Problem behaviour management;
94 professionals, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, benefited from the training sessions. The sessions were delivered by CEECC member teams.
In order to touch the practice of more professionals at national level, a child mental health summer school was organized in Sibiu, 16th-20th of June 2010, under the topic “Nature and nurture in child and adolescent mental health”. The event was opened by Ileana Botezat Antonescu, head of National Centre for Mental Health, and Tommaso Diegoli, project coordinator on behalf of Save the Children Norway - South East Europe Regional Office. 49 psychologists and psychiatrists from 12 national counties attended the event.
All the project’s results and resources will be soon available on the
www.ceecc.ro website.