Within the framework of the IT4Anxiety project, the Haute Ecole de la Province de Namur (HEPN) is setting up a training course dedicated to mental health professionals on the use of new technologies in blended therapies. For this training to be in line with the needs of the mental health community, the HEPN team met with many experts. Among these experts, some stand out. Here is the testimony of Muriel Dulière from the HEPN who shares with us these exceptional encounters.
“Through the IT4Anxiety project, we have the chance to meet people who are out of the ordinary, people who change your perceptions and your vision of life.
There are people who inspire you by their project, their vision, their value. These people, in the space of a few hours, will be like a breath of fresh air.
Among these people, we would like to mention two encounters that brought new life to our project.
Mrs So Yung Straga, President of the Shared Patient Experience association, welcomed us in her elegant and refined salon in the heart of Brussels.
We didn't have time to switch on our camera before the exchanges were already coming from all sides.
"The hospital is far from being the caring environment that the patient expects. The patient is not prepared for this hostile environment.”
"The carer has the right to non-performance, which technology does not have. The carer must give himself the right to be himself, the key to congruence.”
Time flies by as the words resonate and ring true.
Since that day, our project has been coloured by the patient’s experience, the scope and stakes of which are gradually being understood. Our training will enable us to integrate the user's opinion as an active participant in the same way as other resources.
The IT4Anxiety project will be able to carry the values and experiences of patients and will be a place that will allow this emergence.
Our second meeting took place in Namur, where Stephane Waha and Pierre Faignoy, peer supports, arrived relaxed to tell us about their missions and their experiences.
Peer supports are like a link between carers and patients, enabling them to understand each other better thanks to their experience.
Putting their own history and ours into perspective allows us to understand the complementary of carers and patients. We immediately feel the will to share and the enthusiasm in the words, an exchange full of generosity, caring and humour.
A day that confirms the richness of So Yung's words put into practice and directly enhanced by the missions of Stéphane and Pierre.
We obviously provoked the meeting of these two personalities that we could not keep to ourselves and that would not remain there.
The training that we are building for carers and future carers within the framework of this project is fed every day by unique and singular personalities. This training, rich in perspective, in a different viewpoint, full of humanity, will be available from October.
Follow us closely to find out more, experience the same sensations and see how these encounters have influenced our training path!”