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A presenter stands at the front of a room, gesturing towards a projection screen with architectural diagrams and text. Several people are seated at a long wooden table, attentively listening. The room has large windows and various abstract artworks.
Events

Mental Health Project Week

10 March 2022

A new Project Week initiative at UWC Adriatic in collaboration with the Trieste Mental Health Department

Alvaro (Philippines), Abraham (Mexico), Federica (Italy), Karen (Japan), Khaled (Syria), Nour (Tunesia), Maria (Peru) and Riham (Iraq) are the students who formed the Adriatic Laptop Orchestra to combine their abilities in music, physics, psychology, neurology, and programming for a new Project Week initiative. Their goal was to compose a song in Italian according to the main principles of musical therapy so that it would be enjoyable and beneficial for people with mental health issues.

They were drawn to this particular subject because of Trieste’s international reputation as a city that revolutionised mental health. Indeed, the Trieste Mental Health Department is a public, community-based mental healthcare service that evolved from the pioneering de-institutionalisation experiences of the psychiatrist Franco Basaglia and his collaborators in the 1970’s. Acknowledged by the WHO as one of the most advanced public mental health care services in the world, the Trieste MHD is still today a leading institution in innovative approaches to mental healthcare aimed at emancipating and empowering people suffering from mental disorders.

The students learned more about all of this from alumna Tamara Lipovec (UWCAD 1990-92), who works at the MHD and said how wonderful it had been

“
to meet students from the school that I graduated from 30 years ago, particularly since I found them to be so keen to raise awareness about mental health
”

The group also had a session with a musical therapist and repeated meetings with people with mental health issues.

«This experience has really taught us a great deal about the stigma attached to mental health conditions throughout history» says Riham

“
and it was exciting to hear how in Trieste mental asylums have been replaced with facilities that treat patients as human beings who have a place in society and are no longer segregated. We bonded really well with all the people we met and really enjoyed composing our song for them and they helped us a lot in the process
”