Improving mental health in rural communities
Centre for education, tolerance and multiculturalism
+38121785033
Direct work in rural community and promotion of self-education of people and healath care providers. Making of "a mental health conscious community" as an example for future developmnent of similar communities. The intervention will terget everyone in the community - citizens, health care providers, local authorities and decission makers and media.
CETIM /Centre for Education, Tolerance and Multiculturalism) is a newly formed NGO. It consists of experts who are different nationalities and are succesfull in their professions, devoted to promote tolerance and multiculturalism on local and global level, with a special attention to rural communities.
1. Preparing curricula for individuals and for general practitioners by leading experts.
2. Distribution of CD's with lectures, training course materials and other promotional and educational materials to every houshold and health care provider in pilot rural community
3. Educational campaign in local media as well as campaign for sensitivity of public to this problem in schools and enterprises
4. Advocacy to local authorities to make program sustainable in the future
5. Promotion of activities on national and international level
6. Monitoring and evaluation of activities and results
1. Rural health care providers are educated how to talk with every patient about mental health and how to recognize symptoms and threat them
2. Individuals from rural communities are trained how to recognize symptoms of mental disorders and how to report them to hteir health providers
3. Families from rural communities have learned how to support member of family with mental disorder
4. A pilot rural community bacame first "mental health conscious community"
1. Recognition from local authorities, accepteness from health care providers and public
2. Spreading activities to other communities
3. Recognition a general practitioners, not psychiatrist as a baseline for prevention and treatment of mental disorders
Lack of support from menagement of health institutions and Health insurence to change current system of prescribing drugs for some mental disorders just py psychiatrists
More than 10,000
$100 ‐ 1000
Yes
Idea phase
Yes
Centre for Eduacation, Tolerance and Multiculturalism - CETIM
Less than a year
Yes
No
No
The organization is newly formed and it is in the process of making partnerships both with NGO and government,
1. Availability for experts invloved in organization to fully devote their work to organization and its initiatives
2. To establish an office of organization
3. To include organization in an international network providing international collaboration with similar organizations
My first workplace was a GP in a small rural community. As a young doctor living in that community I recognize a lot of silent mental disorders among inhabitants, but they were rarely ready to speak about it in the GP office. From the other hand, as a doctor I hadn't enough training to recognize all the symptoms and to know hot to speak with my patients about it.
After that I moved to University and started to teach students about the epidemiology of mental disorders. During my university career a learned a lot about the problem, but I am always going back in my thinking to rural communities where university knowledge is often unreachable. Thus I decided to devote my career to improvement of health in rural communities.
I'm a medical doctor with PhD in public health and with a specialization in epidemiology.
2000-2002 I was working in primary care
2002-present I'm working in Institute of public health of Vojvodina in the Centre for disease control and prevention. I also teach epidemiology and public health at the University of Novi Sad.
I focused my work to vulnerable population, especially from rural communities and national minorities.
I was also involved in democratic changes in Serbia in recent years with the focus of promotion of multiculturalism.
Together with other experts and friends I was one of the funders of Centre for education, tolerance and multuculturalism this year.
Through another organization or company
Gradjanske inicijative