The experience of psychiatric, neurological and psychological problems.
Standards of quality and perspectives in the educational work of hospital school in child psychiatry.
Closed • language ENG
Coordinator:
Riitta Launis
Teistontie 35
33520 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 31165110
Fax +358 3 31164372
Objectives History and Status
Thursday 4th to Saturday 6th October 2001
UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA
Organised with support of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, within the framework of a Socrates Programme -Accompanying Measures-.
(report of the atelier 9 made by Valerie Martin participant in the Pamplona meeting)
1. General context
2. Distribution of the atelier
3. Thoughts and orientations for our practice
4. Conclusions
1. General context
The meeting of this atelier was part and organized through the European project here above mentioned. One of its aims was to bring together Atelier 9 members, dedicated to the pedagogy developed with children and adolescents in psychiatric wards. The objective was to establish an exchange on different practices and their underlying theoretical options. It was also expected that a common project be structured and carried out this year for evaluation at the next European Days to be held in Rome in October 2002.
2. Distribution of the atelier
The first session was dedicated to the group’s questions and expectations from the seminar itself. A series of themes was established and a consensus found on the agenda for the three days of work ahead.
The following themes were selected:
– The need for an exchange on the different practices
– To define the specific nature of hospital teaching in psychiatric wards
– To develop work orientations related to the motivation of the students concerned
– To answer the question of how to avoid the risks of stigmatisation of these young people and enable them to regain access to traditional schooling
– Clarify and debate on the theoretical positions founding our practice
The second session consisted in the presentation of the work of the teachers of the Ecole Escale practicing at the Centre Thérapeutique pour Adolescents (CThA) of the St Luc University Clinic (Brussels). They have shown how their pedagogical approach has developed from specific options which are at the origin of the creation of this department. The presentation was divided in three parts:
– History and organization of the Centre Thérapeutique pour Adolescents. The plan of action implemented is aiming to enable these young people to go beyond their difficulties by respecting their point of view without locking them into a psychiatric diagnosis and without administering medication. This helps most of them to avoid the fate of a chronic psychiatric patient regularly admitted into hospital. Moreover the CThA is in line with the history of institutional psychotherapy and mostly refers to psychoanalysis and systems analysis.
– The need to develop a pedagogy in keeping with the knowledge of adolescence as promoted by this service.
– Explaining the tools used: writing workshop, philosophical workshop, logical reasoning workshop and they have also shown how they collaborate with the original schools in order to prepare these young people to return to the school system.
The third session was a presentation of the work done in Alkmaar, Holland, at the “De Spinaker” school attached to a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. It is a conventional hospital whose reference is the dominant American psychiatric trend presided by the DSM IV. The pedagogical project implemented uses scales of behaviour assessment for each student from which a pedagogical programme is devised (for a more comprehensive description visit the HOPE website).
The fourth session was dedicated to debating the foundation of the concept of the work of the members of the atelier 9. Indeed, we have noticed that the advocated pedagogy depended partly upon the hospital department itself and the points of view held by these institutions about its patients, its therapeutical projects and the means to carry them out.
The fifth session was a presentation given by Riitta LAUNIS (Finland) the atelier 9 coordinator of a project already carried out within the framework of European exchanges. The purpose of this was to illustrate possibilities of a collaboration among hospital teachers.
The last session was used to define concrete orientations and work deadlines for the defined projects:
– Preparation of a questionnaire on the theoretical foundation underlying our respective practices and pursue our reflection for teacher’s training purposes.
– Presentation of the typical track record of a student in each institution for the next congress.
3. Thoughts and orientations for our practice
These encounters were interesting on several counts. On one hand we have had to position ourselves in the framework of our practices and of the projects we are defending. Exchanges with our European colleagues have enabled us to clarify our position and take the necessary step back to better understand the challenges of this work. We have noted that the choices made by the different schools were largely linked to the therapeutical project of the psychiatric ward were they were operating.
On the other hand, we think that it is important to pursue the reflection in order to open the field of this sector to the questions raised by a schooling system confronted to and increasing drop out rate. It is worth noting that a notable part of these young people has left school for psycho-social reasons. The school institution finds it difficult to address this problem. These adolescents are then referred to specialised services.
4. Conclusion
This meeting has opened the way to many reflections. We are convinced of the need to pursue these exchanges and this work. We are committed to maintaining and pursuing this thought process in the various places concerned.
Valérie MARTIN
Related files for The experience of psychiatric, neurological and psychological problems.:
Atelier 9 • download this fileIntegration / Pupil Tracking
Project
Clinical School Care • download this file
A system of clinical school care
Children with psychiatric problems • download this file
The Children with psychiatric Problems. Aim of the workgroup