Recovery School Jihlava - a place of stories

At the Polytechnic University of Jihlava we are modernizing and innovating the teaching in the field of mental health.

Project website: Recovery School Jihlava

About the project

We would like to join the platform of schools that support education through experts with experience - peer tutors. In the UK, for example, this innovative approach is compulsory in the education of future social workers.

Who is a peer tutor?

A peer tutor is an expert with experience who both presents the latest knowledge and trends in mental health care and uses their experience of mental illness to consciously benefit others. He is "living" proof that recovery is possible.

Where did peer educators in the Czech Republic come from?

In the Czech Republic, the position of peer tutor was introduced by the Center for the Development of Mental Health Care (CRPDZ). In 2013/2014, CRPDZ implemented a project called "Engaging Care Users in Mental Health Care Education". In the framework of the project, the first 10 peer trainers in the Czech Republic were trained by peer trainers from the Netherlands and the UK. Thanks to CRPDZ, we were able to introduce teaching with participation of peer trainers also at the VŠPJ.

How did peer tutors get involved at VŠPJ?

In the course of the Health and Social Worker degree, teaching with peer tutors has been part of the compulsory course Foundations of Psychiatry and Psychopathology since 2017, and we have had first-hand experience of the effect of the teaching and its impact on students' attitudes towards people with experience of mental health problems in particular. Teaching with peer tutors makes sense to us, it is a practical way of destigmatising. At the moment we have the aforementioned compulsory course that all students in the Health and Social Worker course take. Through the project "Innovation and Development of Mental Health Courses" funded by the EEA Grants 2014 - 2021, Education Programme, we would like to expand the base of peer lecturers and the course offer, both to students and the public. If successful, the Jihlava Recovery School will be established. In the project we are collaborating with CRPDZ and the city of Bergen, Norway.

What do students say about learning with peer tutors?

The peer tutors"went so called with skin on the game and were not afraid to talk about how their mental illness affected them, what it took away from them, what the reactions of family, relatives and friends were."

"I realised that suffering from a mental disorder doesn't mean you can't experience good things."

"What I take away from the course is that I shouldn't judge people on sight if I don't know their problems at all."

A few students asked for more opportunities to meet with peer tutors, here is one quote for all: "Everyone should be able to participate and get to know these people." We would therefore like to establish a Recovery School.

Vlasta Řezníková

Where can you find more information?

On the web: www.skolazotaveni.com

On Facebook: School of Recovery Jihlava

House of Foreign Cooperation, EEE Grants

Contact:

PhDr. Vlasta Řezníková, Ph.D. 

Telefon: +420 567 141 159

Email: vlasta.reznikova@vspj.cz

The project Innovation and Development of Mental Health Courses has been awarded a grant from the EEA Grants 2014 - 2021, Education Programme, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.