 From 19.07.-30.07.2021. together with people from 6 counties of Croatia, we participated in the training for peer experts through Zoom.
Our educators from the Netherlands, Cassandra Berkman and Annette Furnemont, shared with us their stories of recovery, gave us guidance, and asked us to design and share our own story of recovery by following how we feel about it. We learned about the values important for the profession of “peer expert” and tools for creating a personal development document (hope for recovery, right to risk, work on stigma and auto-stigma, application of personal experience in peer work), and the importance of mastering communication skills. Through a two-week training, we gained a lot of experience in personal development, and the online way of working allowed us to get to know each other better and connect.
0 Comments
Sexuality is about sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions, and behaviors toward other people. People can find other people physically, sexually, or emotionally attractive. Frequently, there is a combination of these.
 This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Each day of the week we will highlight one aspect of mental health.
Today, 11th of May 2021, volunteers of the Coalition for Psychotrauma and for Peace Vukovar, as part of the campaign on the European Week of Mental Health Awareness, in the period from 10 am to 1 pm, informed fellow citizens about the importance of mental health and the activities of our organization.
 This year we are celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week (May 10 to May 16) under the motto # Connect with Nature. There are various studies that support the role that nature can play in protecting and supporting our mental health. Even just 15 minutes a week of nature walks can be enough to improve your mental and emotional health.
Take advantage of the benefits of nature today!  Saturday 27 June is International Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day.
In reality, we should not be speaking about PTSD. Rather, we should use the term post-traumatic stress reactions (PTSRs), with emphasis on the plural. These are normal reactions to traumatic events, which are events that threaten the physical and/or psychological well-being of the person or someone close. These reactions are individual. They can be psychological, physical, or a combination of both. Drugs deal only with the symptoms, not with the underlying issues. People need to talk and process.  Friday 26 June is the International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture.
Unfortunately, physical, psychological, and sexual torture is extremely widespread. While it is carried out by quite a number of governments, some of which even have schools for torturers, it also is carried out by paramilitary and other groups. Also, unfortunately, torture is nothing new. It has been carried out through the millennia.  World Refugee Day is Saturday, 20 June.
We say the same thing every year and it seems to get worse rather than better. The ways that governments are treating refugees and people attempting to assist them are nothing short of scandalous, inhumane, and blasphemous against the tenets of all religions. Virtually all refugees and asylum seekers are fleeing torture, war, discrimination, disease, and poverty. They are seeking better lives for themselves and their families. Virtually all become assets to the regions to which they flee. They provide labor and expertise and become valuable members of their new societies. Thus, rather than killing them and injuring them in pushbacks, governments and other bodies should be opening borders rather than closing them and welcoming them and providing facilities for them to learn the languages and cultures of the regions to which they come.  Everyone reacts differently to stressful situations such as an infectious disease outbreak that requires social distancing, quarantine, or isolation.
 Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I’ve been thinking and talking with colleagues quite a bit about the situation with the corona virus in the world. There is much to say. First, I want to note that I am not minimizing the threat of COVID-19. However, I think that talk of it, and concentration on it, has become excessive and obsessive, this to the exclusion of other issues that, in my view, we must work on. Also, I fear that there is a great deal of talk and little or no action. That concerns me greatly, as so much talk will not get us far. I will make some suggestions for action later in this letter. |
