Irena Mladenova - project co-ordinator helping sufferers of schizophreniarecover regular daily lives
In today's edition of One on One Jan Velinger's guest is Irena Mladenova, a young and inspiring sociotherapist who works for the civic association ESET-HELP, dedicated to helping young people with a history of mental illness, mainly schizophrenia, return to the routines of regular daily life. The association recently opened the Dendrit cafe in Prague, that is specially run by its clients, former patients, where they learn to become independent again, and regain a sense of well-being, so that they may reintegrate into broader society.
I'd like to begin by asking you - you're a sociotherapist and you've been working with one organisation for some time now - if you could tell me a little bit about that...
"Sure. I've been working for ESET-HELP for about a year and a half, maybe a little bit more, I started to work there as a sociotherapist with the "clients". At the beginning I worked only with clients in our programmes, which are programmes that are focused on the rehabilitation and re-socialisation of schizophrenics, mostly. Then I tried to enrich our offer for clients by beginning a new programme, which is the training cafeteria."
That was launched just a couple months ago now, it's a cafe in one of Prague's districts, tell me about how that project came together.
"Well, we as an organisation had the idea of a cafeteria for a long time but, it's pretty difficult to find where to get the money for the project. I applied the project to NROS, which divides money from European Union funds. The training cafeteria was supported, we got the budget from them, and we could start to do it. But, of course, there were many complications going along with it."
Now that it has been launched you already have several clients working there, who are trying to re-enter normal social life. How has it turned out so far?
"It's working very well because there are specifically four clients working there. Three are bartenders and the fourth cleans the cafeteria. We gave them the opportunity to be employed. Of course, this illness, schizophrenia, is very serious, and those people are usually very isolated from society. Society here is still sort of not accepting people with mental illnesses, and we are trying to break those barriers. That's the main idea of sociotherapy."
How do things work at the cafe? Did they take part, for example, in designing the space, or anything like that?
"Well, kind of. They participate in meetings that we have where we outline plans... we have a cultural programme for the next month always, and we invite new Czech bands, as well as artists who do photos or pictures, so we can hold exhibitions, it's a nice space. So clients can take part in things like that."
It's not a permanent job, it's an introduction back to working life, and how long will they actually stay with the cafe?
"It lasts at least four months but they can be there for up to one year. Basically, it is important for them to regain working habits again, because, thanks to the illness they usually lose those habits: coming on time, trying to fulfil the work process. They need to focus their attention on something for a certain period of time - it's pretty difficult for them."
There are sociotherapists who are "on hand" to help them through these steps...
"Yes. Definitely. It's very necessary because the clients, when they come, need at least for the first two months need quite a lot of support. They need to know that there is somebody to help them. If they forgot what to do. You have to be there."
I imagine as well that being a sociotherapist is not just a job: it's also very emotionally demanding because when you are working with somebody over a longer period of time and you know they have been through these difficulties, there must be a lot of personal involvement. Is that the case?
"Yes, that's definitely true because you hear about many tragic fates. Being a sociotherapist, a part of it is to have a relationship with the client. And if you have a relationship with them you know many things about them, and sometimes it's very tragic stories that you get to know. I think that what is most difficult for me is that it's not always positive feedback because you work with them, you try to help them, but you never know how the illness is going to continue. Of course there are many cases that clients just got worse in their illness and have to go to hospital again. And then you can start from the beginning, then you can start again, in little steps, and you hope it's not going to happen again. But, you never know."
Have you observed then, or have your colleagues observed then, at the cafe, relationships stemming between the schizophrenic patients who work there, and regular cafe clientele who are aware of their condition? Have you been able to observe that?
"Yes, it's very interesting, because when you enter our cafe and you are a regular client just passing by, you have no idea that it is a "training cafeteria", and that the clients work there. The only way that you can find out is that in the menu, at the bottom, there is a sentence written where we thank customers for their patience, because it takes a little longer time than in a usual cafe, it takes them just more time. Of course customers eventually find out, but they don't really know the clients were mentally ill, just that they have a different background. Then, when they go to pay they find out that the cafe sells the clients' hand-made products. And I was surprised to find that those sold very well. People started to ask 'Where do you get those nice hand-made lidded-boxes or post-cards?', and this is how they started personal contact."
The cafe is still in its first stage: after two months are there indications that some of the people working there will be ready to move on?
"Well, I think it's a little bit longer term. I think they are very good, and they are doing very well, but I see that they still need a lot of support from the therapists who work there. We try to teach them to be independent, but only to a stage they want and are capable of. They are still not totally independent, they still need support."
Do you think, ultimately, that the work of your civic organisation and others like it, is having an impact on how mental illness is perceived here?
"Yes. Definitely, because in the district where we work the people know about our organisation, they see that we also do something for the community. They have a place where they can go for a coffee, where they can see an exhibition. One week during the year we have an "open week" when anyone who comes in to visit us can see what kind of programmes we have. We also have a centre for daily activities where we offer painting or even English for our clients, and computer studies. Just a much broader choice of services than only institutional hospitals gave before."
And, if you'd like to visit ESET-HELP on the web for more information the association's internet address is: www.esethelp.cz.
