Recreation room for people with mental disabilities, Ruse

city of Ruse

Relaxation room for the mentally handicapped

We help together

You wake up. You feel that this morning is somehow different. The items in your room look different. A girl enters the room that you’re almost certain you’ve seen somewhere, but you don’t remember where.
– Father!
“Father?”

Why does this girl call you that? You don’t know how to have a daughter. You stare blankly, trying to make out the tears in her eyes. You feel kind of sad, but you don’t understand why.

This is often the scenario of a person in a home for the disabled. This person can be you and me, it can be any of us. Because schizophrenic disorders and mental disorders in 50% of cases are caused by severe stress, hopelessness and lack of support. Just a minute and you’re on the other side. And when you get there – there is no going back.

The home

Our cause this time is to help the persons from CNST PLPR 3 and 4 “Raina Gateva”. There are 27 people living in the home with diagnoses from the spectrum of schizoaffective disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and organic personality disorder. In human language – people who have lost touch with reality, who fall into severe conditions, influenced not only by drug therapy, the environment that surrounds them and, of course – the support they receive.

For us at the Pass On Foundation, it has always been important to meet the people we help. Over the years, we have visited the home more than once, we have talked to the people accommodated there more than once. Among the residents is a ship captain. There are engineers and artists. There are children’s teachers and even a violinist. People with interests, people with professions, some of whom end up in the home after facing the disease, abandoned by daughters, grandchildren and parents, siblings, and others placed in social services due to the inability of their loved ones to care for them.
Do you know what a person’s home room looks like? We know. Next to the bed, N. there is a small locker with lipsticks arranged on top. She likes to put on make-up. To be beautiful. There is also a small mirror that reminds her that she still has a face, though unknown. Next to R.’s bed, there are many photos. To children and grandchildren. “They’re in Spain. Look how beautiful they are. Oh, how I love them. Do you like them? This is my grandson. My dear. It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?” And yes. These are really her children. With the small detail that they do not live in Spain, but two blocks from home. Two blocks from where their mother rearranges the photos day after day and speaks lovingly about them.

It would be nice if people at home could work. They are all like all of us, having our own thoughts and worries, worries, but often distorted through the prism of the disease. It is difficult to find a job for people with mental disorders. Society has imposed a stigma. Employers do not want to hire such people because people with mental illness need not be overburdened, they are not always accurate in their duties, they go to long hospitals, they need to be contacted carefully.

Most of the residents have minimal social pensions. Upon accommodation in the social service, a monthly fee is paid to the state, which is within 50% of the pension. The other funds are used to buy medicines, clothes and coffee.

For a person with a mental disorder, it is insanely important to have those 5 minutes in which they drink coffee and some of them smoke a cigarette. This makes them feel part of society, makes them have a sense of belonging and share, albeit briefly, the normal life of people outside.

Therefore, our cause is focused on providing a renovated living room – the place that is almost all day the gathering place of the people from the home.

What do we have to do:

1. To provide a person – an interior designer who could advise us on how best to organize the space.

2. To remove all broken and rotten furniture.

3. To refresh the walls, floor and ceiling.

4. To buy upholstered furniture where our friends can sit.

5. Put sound, because they love to dance and sing.

There are two ways everyone can help:
– through personal participation – if you are a designer, you have the opportunity to provide materials or you can get involved with work
– with a donation to the account of the foundation on the grounds of “new room for Ruse”

How can I help?

If you want to help - do it at the link below. We believe that we will need BGN 8,000 to achieve the desired result. If you want to get involved with personal work, please contact us at info@begood.today or by phone from the site.