The Yellow Ribbon March will be held on Saturday. What are the patients fighting for?

On June 4, the Yellow Ribbon March will take place in Warsaw – a march of solidarity with people experiencing mental crisis and their relatives. The list of problems that the participants of the march want to point out to is long. What are they fighting for?

1. The Yellow Ribbon March will be held on Saturday in Warsaw and other Polish cities
2. The event is organized for the sixth time
3. Mash participants, patients want to pay attention, among others for insufficient support and discrimination against people in a mental crisis, lack of measures to prevent the increase in suicide, insufficient financing of psychiatry or difficult access to treatment
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

The XNUMXth Yellow Ribbon March

As the organizers of the march emphasize, the mental condition of Poles is in a terrible condition. According to the EZOP research conducted before the pandemic, every fourth inhabitant of Poland experienced, experiences or will experience a mental crisis. Now, not only the number of crises has increased the experience of fighting COVID-19, but also the war in Ukraine.

The number of suicides is increasing, many children grow up in an environment that requires support – in oppressive, toxic, difficult families, in oppressive schools, the consumption of alcohol also increases, which translates into the quality of relationships between people.

Three-quarters of Poland’s inhabitants do not have access to day-care treatment and support from community treatment teams that can help the patient and his family at home, and only 5 percent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have psychotherapy support, the organizers write.

Yellow Ribbon March – the most important problems

What are the goals of the organizers and participants of the march? The list of patients’ demands is long. They want, among others

1. that support for people in crisis is quick, tailored to their needs as much as possible and that all Polish residents have equal access to help, so that there are no white spots on the map where treatment is unavailable,
2. that environmental treatment based on mental health centers established so far as a pilot of the National Mental Health Program, would develop,
3. to develop measures to prevent a huge increase in suicide,
4. so that psychiatry is properly financed and doctors and psychotherapists do not leave the private sector, and psychiatric wards do not attach the patient to bed with belts – there are other forms of patient control that only require improving the standards in the hospital, employing more staff and arranging the hospital space in an appropriate manner,
5. that people experiencing mental crisis have the same access to treatment of somatic health problems as other patients,
6. that future doctors are supported in choosing a psychiatric specialization, and that during medical studies, classes in communication with the patient are obligatory introduced, so that students choosing a psychiatric specialization are provided with classes to which experts will be invited through experience,
7. that the patient experiencing a mental crisis and their loved ones are respected by mental health professionals, that they are provided with support and information to help them get through the experience,
8. that the role of recovery assistants develops – people after a mental crisis and adequate training to support people in crisis and their relatives, so that they are employed in mental health centers, ZOLs, NPS, in social welfare, centers for the homeless,
9. that people experiencing crisis are not discriminated against and that they do not discriminate themselves, depriving themselves of the right to study, work or love,
10. that social campaigns on mental health arise, to change the cultural image of a person experiencing crisis, and that schools develop programs, trainings and workshops to support children and young people in caring for their mental health,
11. for at least one department for pregnant women experiencing mental crisis to be established in Poland,
12. to establish departments in Poland where parents could stay with children in crisis, so that the whole family could be supported,
13. that the use of modern and effective therapeutic methods, such as an open dialogue approach or emotional reanimation, develop.

Why is this so important?

The faster and more efficiently it reacts to a crisis, the greater the chance of overcoming it. Crises like to get worse. They can end in suicide or isolation from society, which is also a form of death,

Yellow Ribbon March – how is the route?

The march will start on Saturday, June 4 at 10 from the vicinity of the fountain in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. Then it will pass the following streets: Świętokrzyska, Marszałkowska, Senatorska, and Miodowa. Ok 11 a picket will be held in front of the Ministry of Health and the petition will be presented to the Minister of Health or his representative. The further route of the march is: Miodowa- Bonifraterska- Mural of solidarity with people experiencing mental crises and their relatives – situated under the viaduct ul. Słomiński, at the Gdańsk Railway Station.

End of the meeting at approx. 12.30.

Events related to the Yellow Ribbon March will also take place in other cities, incl. in Krakow (in the Market Square, at the monument to Mickiewicz on 4.06.22/12.00/4.06.22, start at 11.00) and in Poznań (in Park Cytadela, on the square behind the Monument to the Heroes, on XNUMX, at XNUMX).

The Yellow Ribbon March is organized by the eFkropka Foundation and organizations related to the Mental Health Congress.

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