Children and teenagers hospitalized for mental health diagnosis and treatment face many challenges and go through a deeply personal and stressful experience of failure. This can seriously damage their self-esteem and self-confidence and often deters them from completing their treatment and recovery.

 This project aims to integrate psychosocial interventions with treatment to ensure proper mental health care for children and teenagers hospitalized at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Clinic in Cluj-Napoca. Patients’ needs are considered from a holistic perspective  that fosters  a better compliance to treatment, a higher quality of life within the clinic and a more promising recovery in the long term.

 An experienced clinical psychologist and a team of psychology students from the Babeş-Bolyai University support the clinic’s medical staff providing individual and group counseling, art therapy, play therapy, occupational therapy and sensitizations geared towards helping the children identify feelings and concerns related to their illness and discuss potential coping mechanisms.

Families are also supported in understanding the needs and challenges of their children.

Research shows that enhancing the healthcare environment with specific types of artwork can increase the overall wellbeing of the hospital’s residents and help accelerate a patient’s healing process. This is why this project also includes bespoke hand-painted murals designed by two highly experienced artists trained by Anouk Foundation,   in collaboration with  the patients and the hospital personnel, who will be involved in the creative process.

In addition to the activities that take place at the Clinic, Fundatia facilitates mental health literacy programs in high schools with the aim to promote mental health and providing teens with the resources necessary to develop healthy coping mechanisms.