„Peer to Peer” meetings organized by SOMATO

From the beginning of the month, SOMATO association from Balti organized four group “peer to peer” meetings in which consultants and experts from mental health area together with beneficiaries and professionals from four mental health centers participated.
Meetings took place in Orhei (6th of November), Soroca (11th of November), Cahul (13th of November) and Cimislia (19th of November). In Cimislia, Maija Välivaara the coordinator for Moldova from the Embassy of Finland in Romania and Hilkka Lampen from the Foreign Ministry of Finland did participate in the meeting.
For the first time in Republic of Moldova beneficiaries of mental health services are involved in the role of “peer to peer” consultants.

The purpose of these four meetings was to contribute to strengthening the personality and encourage people with psycho-social and intellectual disabilities. The meetings took place in a friendly, open and positive atmosphere.

“This kind of meetings, in a way, represent a type of recovery, because beneficiaries share their lived experiences, learning to provide support to their peers”, mentioned Alexandru Ciobanu, the coordinator of the Mental Health Center from Cimislia.

Eugenia, one of the beneficiaries of the Mental Health Center from Soroca, said that she feels better when is helping other people with similar problems, and Efrim from Cimislia mentioned that on these meetings he understands that he is not alone and that any problem has a solution. Valentina, another beneficiary from Cimislia, said that after such kind of meetings she is going home with good mood and is motivated to change things for the better.

„Peer to peer” meetings are part of the project “Capacity building of groups of persons with psycho-social and intellectual disabilities for better participation to decision making and effective inclusion in society”. The project developed by SOMATO association from Balti during the period September 2015 to August 2016 is financed by Embassy of Finland in Bucharest.

The Project includes organization of several training activities with beneficiaries of services and with specialists from four community mental health centers from  Cimislia, Soroca, Orhei and Cahul districts.

Photos from "Peer to Peer" meeting