o Whom It May Concern:
I finished high school at the formation Medicine - Dental Assistant. My next step was enrolment at the University "St. Cyril and Methodius" Faculty of Dentistry where I've graduated 1998.
From 1993 I've been having a form of mental illness which affected on my social abilities (communication with colleagues, friends and family). In 1995 I've lost my father (my mother passed away when I was 14) which was a great difficulty for my normal functioning in the social environment. With my graduating in 1998 I've also shown interest in self recovery by participating in several programs in the mental health rehabilitation and resocialisation. During this period I've met a great number of families and individuals with similar problems and by creating friends and working together on similar issues in the Social Club and at the NGO's I've come to a solution to my problem but this also gave me a mission to help the others using my experience and potentials.
To upgrade my self I visited the program of Fountain House for 3 weeks where the direct humane approach with the people that were visiting the Clubhouse is considered as most vital. This was essential experience for me because it gave me an idea that could improve the rehabilitation of the people with mental illness and upgrade the current model in Macedonian Mental Health Programs adopted from the WHO (the Italian model with Daycare Centers).
Above all for me this meant a more professional approach on the problem, so I've participated in several workshops, seminars, trainings and activities in the Macedonian NGO's that are relevant to this issues. Especially this meant creating a standardized NGO's and implementing
user-run service,.
self-support croup’s
promote .
initiate ,
collaborate with existing mental health stakeholders in Macedonia and region of SEE.
My transformation from "patient hood" to "person hood" proves that anyone can start from "crisis" and end to a "career" but it is a process that has to involve the normal functioning individuals and those that have a problem on a same humane level of respect. I would recommend to anyone that reeds my short life story to follow the powerful comment of Mr. Nitzhe "Heaven lies beneath the shadow of my sword".
Sincerely,
Dejan Stevanovic
