Today was a good day for progress in setting up Soul Therapy!
Caraes is the name of the mental health hospital where I will be trialing art therapy sessions. I met with a partner of Caraes, Haragirimana Claver, who is a mental health advocate. Together with Jean Pierre Ndagijimana they are part of an organization called OPROMAMER, which is designed for patient advocacy and is there to help connect former patients with aftercare. In a country where mental illnesses can bring stigma, OPROMAMER is seeking to bring attention, advocacy and solutions to the problems associated with mental health care.
I showed Claver the session plans that are designed and ready to go and he was pleased with the different art projects and he thought that patient participants would find them appealing. This week, we will meet with the director at Caraes to discuss dates and times and the needs of the the patients at Caraes.
The most important goal with Soul Therapy is to create a self-sustaining art therapy program that is based in Kigali. Claver stresses how vital it is that art therapy becomes one of many solutions driven by the needs of mental health patients in Rwanda. More about this in a future post!
Check out these resources to see what Rwanda has to offer for continuous mental health care. The well-being of patients is a critical, nationally recognized goal in Rwanda.
Caraes Hospital
Talk Recovery Training
OPROMAMER
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