Requirements: Enrollment in the Master's Degree in Psychology, in Educational Sciences or other disciplines related to helping relationships, or corresponding degrees obtained from no more than a year.

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Psy + Onlus supports the right to inclusion of people with special needs. In past years we have had the opportunity to confirm, through extensive research and observations, the well-known iatrogenic effect of hospitalization: long-term hospitalizations, despite improvements in clinical and organizational practices, negatively affect the development opportunities of young people and bring to a progressive involution in adults. With "Special needs" we refer to the needs that derive from strongly disabling conditions such as infantile cerebral palsy, autism, encephalopathies: these patients should be supported through complex multidisciplinary interventions, managed by adequately trained and supervised teams, able to program and provide support and care activities both at home and outside, in close collaboration and contact with family members.

 

We firmly believe that supporting and strengthening the social inclusion practices that Serbian territorial organizations have launched is of primary importance in order to obtain a better quality of life for families and people with special needs.

The "A Special Life" project, developed by Psy + Onlus and Naša Kuća

(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Na%C5%A1a-Ku%C4%87a/289069731150500?fref=ts) will therefore focus on the following main objectives:

• give families the opportunity to spend more time (a better time) with their relatives who have special needs

• integrate the work of the institutions with activities outside and at home

• improve the possibilities of informal learning for patients

• improve the ability of families to cope with the stress factors inherent in the management of relatives with special needs

• improve the general well-being of patients

• sending properly trained volunteers (psychologists) to support the activities of the Naša Kuća day center

• an annual week of creative workshops for Naša Kuća users and operators

• an annual event that will host creative performances and a round table on special needs

• a plan of bi-monthly meetings between expert psychologists, families, users and social workers

• creation of a photo / video reportage for dissemination

Psy + Onlus will select the volunteers who will be evaluated by qualifications and interview following a meeting in which the Psy + Onlus experts will describe the project, the context of the project and the specific connections with their course of study. For those who will be selected for departure, Psy + Onlus will offer a scholarship in the form of a return air ticket to Belgrade, free accommodation for the entire stay (estimated 6 months) and health insurance coverage. Before departure, each volunteer will attend 6 training sessions at the Psy + Onlus office, in Via del Castro Pretorio 30 in Rome. Once in Belgrade, the volunteers will be introduced to their duties by a coordinator and will be supported remotely with a weekly supervision via Skype Conference to ensure the correct implementation of the planned activities. The project actions will engage volunteers 5 days a week for about 8 hours and will include practical support to the host organization and psychoeducational activities in collaboration with Naša Kuća staff. From July 2014, a week of creative workshops will be organized, offered by Psy + Onlus and agreed with Naša Kuća users and operators. Upon return, the volunteers will provide Psy + Onlus and Naša Kuća with a final report and contribute to training courses for future volunteers.

Different feelings can put a strain on families when children with special needs are born: loss, frustration, guilt, denial, avoidance. Many studies show how the birth of a child can have an impact on the balance between parents and family members, who needs to reorganize their functions with the arrival of a new born. When a child with special needs is born, the family faces significant difficulties since all the members have to reorganize their needs and focus all their attention on the new born and his special needs. The non-self-sufficiency of the child with special needs, frightens the parents and often leads to inadequate management behaviors: if the family is not helped, it is often possible to observe dysfunctional behavioral patterns, unknowingly implemented with the function of avoiding pain.

People with Special Needs who live in Institutes are often victims of abandonment when families are not supported in the difficult task of coping with disability.

The purpose of the "A Special Life" project is therefore to improve coping skills, interpersonal skills and the ability to integrate children with Special Needs into families, with the help of volunteer psychologists who will operate on the basis of psychodynamic skills, systemic-relational and humanistic-existential.

• Start of activity September 2015

• Length of stay for each volunteer: 6 months

• Body Percussion by Alessio Brugiotti (Psy + Onlus, Kuma, The House of Melodies, http://www.analoguelemont.wix.com/lemontanalogue)

• Choral singing by Stefano Campetta (Psy + Onlus, Laboratory 41 Bologna http://www.laboratorio41.it/canto-corale-stefano-campetta/ )

• Acting by Monica Mariotti (Psy + Onlus, theather, cinema and fiction actress)

• Creative Reuse by Chiara Giunta (Psy + Onlus, Re-Use, https://www.facebook.com/re.use.58)

• Photographic Self-Portrait by Valentina Valente (Psy + Onlus - Coordinator of the training area, http://www.valentinavalentefotografa.com)

• Filmmaker: Giuseppe Volonnino (https://www.youtube.com/user/giuseppe120584/videos)

• Filmmaker: Giuliano Capozzi (https://www.youtube.com/user/giuls83/videos)

• Photographer: Valentina Valente (http://www.valentinavalentefotografa.com)

 

• Claudio Dalpiaz (President of Psy + Onlus)

• Anica Spasov (President Naša Kuća)