DAM Society (Society for Individuals Suffering from Depression and Anxiety Disorders)
Country
Slovenia
Description
DAM Society has established its own website, a web portal with all the relevant information about depression and anxiety disorders in Slovene language. It also publishes relevant articles on the subject that have been released in the Slovenian press or elswhere, whereby the staff that works on the website translates the foreign articles from English into Slovene.
Apart from the articles, the website also publishes announcements on several happenings, public debates and workshops in the field of depression and anxiety disorders. For those who wish to share their personal life stories about living with their disorders, the staff will publish their story under the popular cathegory of Personal Stories, much loved and appreciated by the users.
The website also comprises a public board, where individuals suffering from anxiety disorders or depression and their support persons can exchange valuable information, ask questions and support each other. The public board is moderated by the staff, all active members of the DAM Society, who monitor the themes and subjects on the board. No professional help is offered on this board, it is meant solely for lay exchange of opinions, which is clearly specified in the board rules (with the only exception being the board about medicaments, where an expert pharmacist offers her opinion on drugs used for treatment, at any time).
One of the most important features of the site is also the list of Slovenian mental health care practitioners, which is the first of its kind and only available to the public on this site (www.nebojse.si).Aims
The project aims to:
-
notify, informing and apprising the general public, but most importantly, individuals suffering with anxiety disorders or depression on facts concerning the disorders in question.
- publish relevant articles on the subject.
- offer a common space for all individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder or depression for exchange of information and mutual support.
- bring together members who wish to meet other individuals suffering from anxiety disorders or depression.
- notify all users about the meetings of DAM society.
- notify the users and the general public about workshops and other events concerning the disorders in question that take place in Slovenia.
- offer the very first coherent list of mental health expert practitioners in Slovenia. The list is constantly being updated.
The main aim is to offer a possibility to recieve support from other fellow sufferers over the internet, since many sufferers do not recieve any support by their surroundings whatsoever.
Areas
Health, Social services
Effectiveness
So far the internet support board and portal prooved to be a huge success amongst the sufferers who join the boards to recieve and give support and exchange information. The response shows how desperately such a site was indeed missed and needed in Slovenia. In not even one year the site was visited by over 500 users, many of those sent their questions or gratitude e-mails directly to the staff on the regular e-mail address of DAM Society. The recieved positive feedback encouraged other organizations working in the field of mental health in Slovenia to cooperate with DAM society, promoting the website address in their campaigns and on their promotion material (e.g. IVZ - the Slovenian Institute for Health Safeguard included the site in their successful campaign "Premagal sem depresijo" - I Can Beat Depression). The site was publicized in public appearances on TV and radio shows and interviews and articles were published by the active members of DAM Society.
Sustainability
DAM Society has reached an agreement with our server host to keep the website alive throughout the year for a certain amount of money payed from DAM Society fee fund and eventual sponsorship. The maintenance of the site is laid upon active members of DAM Society, including the webmaster Stanko Ivančič, who recieved a symbolic sum of money for helping the Society build, mantain and update the site. So far, DAM Society only recieved financial support from its members and one particular sponsor (LEK - Slovenian Pharmacist Company) who payed the Society for an advertising banner on the site. Unfortunately, DAM Society is not otherwise sponsored by any other source, so the active members are constantly searching for opportunities of sponsorship from which they could finance better promotion of the site and the maintenance. Most of the project is based solely on voluntary work and good will from the people involved.
Innovation
The site is unique in Slovenia.
Added Value
Users' involvment and self-organization.
Transferability
The project is transferable.
Mainstreaming Potential
The site has a great mainstreaming potential.
Costs of the Project
For now, all costs are covered by the voulenteers. There is no accounting.
People involved in the Project (number of people and profession)
Around 10 people are involved in keeping the site running. All of them are active members of DAM Society, therefore people coming from various professions. There are 56 registered members.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Project
So far, DAM Society is maintaining the only Slovenian site specific for anxiety disorders and depression, even though those are by far the most common of all mental health disorders in Slovenia. No other site offers such specific information and public boards in Slovene language. It is also the only site that offers a list of mental health care practitioners in Slovenia.
The site is being effectively moderated by the active members of DAM society, so it offers a safe haven for sufferers who are by definition very cautious and afraid in receiving feedback from other people. Distracting members, offenders and those who break the board rules are warned by the staff and banned in case of continual violations. The site is very well received by its users and it operates in a kind, supportive spirit. That is perhaps also the reason why individuals with other mental health disorders come there to seek support, although the site is not specialized in any other disorders than anxiety disorders and depression. Such specific sites are obviously much requested and needed in Slovenia.
Weaknesses stem from continual lack of funding, since DAM Society collects only symbolic membership fees that do not cover all the maintenance expenses, therefore a lot of the work depends on voluntary contribution and good will. The active members of the society are constantly in search of potential sponsors, which are quite hard to find for such a young and rather unknown and specific Society. Another weakness is the lack of active members who are able to help with site maintenance, therefore those who have adequate computer knowledge. There are also not enough active members with adequate knowledge of foreign languages that would be able to translate valuable information and articles from foreign languages into Slovene. DAM Society can not, at this point, afford any professional translators or computer experts; it is dependant on voluntary work.
Contact Person for the Project
Maja Cimerman
Ilirska 22
1000 Ljubljana
www.nebojse.si