Awareness talks to medical students and GP’s
During the month of October, Richmond Foundation welcomed to its offices a group of general practitioners who are specializing as family doctors. They were given a half day training session on the different services Richmond Foundation offers since they will be dealing with people in the community firsthand. On a similar note, Richmond Foundation provided a number of sessions to medical students as a way of sensitizing them to the area of mental health and the services offered by Richmond Foundation. The feedback from both groups was positive and that they found the sessions interesting and informative.
A talk about food hygiene awareness for users
On Monday 6th October 2008, a talk about Food Hygiene Awareness was organized for service users at Richmond Foundation’s Head Office - St. Venera. The aim of the session was to sensitize service users about the basic principles of food handling. About 13 users from Villa Chelsea and Floriana Hostel attended this session and actively participated in the process of applying the learnt principles and basic techniques into their daily life.
Tree Planting activity at Villa Chelsea.
As part of its full week of activities which brings Bank of Valletta, particularly the branch in Naxxar Road closer to the community in B’kara and also in occasion of World Mental Health Day, on Tuesday 8th of October, Mr John Galea (Manager) together with his team alongside with other Bank of Valletta employees came at Villa Chelsea at around 3pm to do some voluntary work in the garden. Besides cleaning and clearing the garden, this activity also included planting 16 olive trees. It was the culmination of some weeks of intensive collaboration between Bank of Valletta branch in Naxxar Road, the B’kara Local Council, the Ministry for Rural Resources and Richmond Foundation. Mr Michael Fenech Adami (B’kara Mayor), Mr Anthony Guillaumier, Ms Catherine Gonzi and Ms Dolores Gauci (Richmond Foundation Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and CEO respectively) were present for the activity.
Training on Mental Health Difficulties and Domestic Violence
Two training sessions about Mental Health Difficulties and Domestic Violence were organized on Monday 13th and Thursday 16th October 2008. About 20 social workers whose services address the needs of persons who experience domestic violence attended these sessions, which offered an opportunity for the participants to reflect on the needs of the clients holistically. This training included short group workshops where the participants discussed relevant issues at length and at a deeper level.
Talks to Youth leaders
‘You CARE about You[th): Stress Management for Young People and Community Leaders’ was the name of two sessions targeted at community leader, youth workers and group leaders. This session was jointly organized by Richmond Foundation, Sedqa and Kummissjoni Djoċesana Żgħażagħ (KDZ). The session of 20th October was facilitated by Richmond Foundation and the other session was facilitated by Sedqa. These sessions took place at KDZ offices at St. Venera.
About fifteen youth leaders or persons involved with young persons attended the session on 20th October. The participants had the opportunity to reflect on stress management on the basis of three perspectives; the personal, the youth leader and the young person.