Visit to CARe Network members in Romania

At the beginning of the month of November, Pavel Rican, general coordinator, Jana Pluharikova Pomajzlova, head of the CARe Academy and Jean Pierre Wilken, chair of the CARe Network visited our CARe Network members in Romania.

We are grateful to Elena Pana, Ioana Pavel and Traian Purnichi to organize all the meetings.

After visiting TREPTE Psychosocial Center and Ana Aslan National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics we learned that despite the fact that Romanian mental health system is mainly hospital based, there are still people who believe that change is possible. They carry out personalised services to people with mental health issues and their families and are engaged in research.

We were also impressed by the work of the NGO Carusel, which runs, among others, a community centre in the city for people who are homeless or addicted, with many physical and mental problems. They also have a shelter for Ukrainian refugees. The director, Marian Ursan, is also working at the university, connecting students and research to the service, and bringing people with lived experience into the curriculum to share their experiences.