Nobody Is Normal Up Close

In Serbia, the treatment of people with mental diseases and disabilities does not represent only a matter of health care and social welfare: it is still a matter of human dignity. Serbia counts 5 big psychiatric hospitals, where more than 3.500 patients live in extremely poor conditions, far from their social and familiar contexts.
In such a framework, the commitment of non governmental organizations like Caritas is crucial, both for lobbying the change and for proposing alternative services to mental care. The keyword in Serbia, since 2000, has been “de-institutionalization”. A complicated word to describe a complicated challenge: to pass from an institutionalized care of the psychiatric patients, to a community-based care inspired to Basaglia’s method.
In 2015, Caritas opened in the city of Šabac the Daycare Center Sveta Sofija, which counts about 30 users with different kind of mental diseases. Sveta Sofia was one of the first Serbian Daycare Center for people with psychiatric problems.