Sweet, Sweet Home – A unique space for people struggling with mental illnesses

"By helping others you help yourself"

Do you know anyone who is mentally ill? The calculus of probability says yes. You may not even be aware of it. Maybe your neighbor is sick. Maybe a friend from school. Or maybe someone from your close family. We don't know that. We do know that during the worsening of the disease, he or she may need support and care around the clock. Maybe she would even need it for the rest of her life. Mental disorders now account for over 40% of all chronic diseases.

Would you like him to have decent living conditions? So that he has access to optimal treatment? So that he could pursue his passions? That he would work, go to the movies, go on vacation? That someone would care for him and make friends?

We also want it very much. We - the proteges, employees and the board of the Disabled Friends Society. Unfortunately, currently the waiting time for a place in a specialist facility is 8 years in Poland! During these years of waiting, terrible things often happen, and the time without specialist therapy cannot be recovered.

That is why we are building a unique place - the Sweet, Sweet Home.

A home where all of this is possible.

Why do we call it "unique"? Because we are planning something innovative that no facility in the World implements:

1. Self-empowerment - planning a way to return to the environment for well-functioning residents.

2. Work - we want to provide employment to mentally disabled people in the Sweet, Sweet Home

3. Contact with animals - we will accept people with their own pets to the House, we will not let the tragedies of people forced to leave a long-time pet.

4. Healthy lifestyle and exercise - meals: no white sugar, prepared on the spot with fresh, local and unprocessed products. We will organize slow jogging, yoga and smovies classes.

5. Ecology - photovoltaic panels on the roof, an effective waste segregation system according to the "zero / less waste" principles.

Who will live in the Sweet, Sweet Home?

People with mental illnesses (mainly psychosis or mood disorders), with an unfavorable course of mental illness exacerbated by environmental neglect. A combination of several life factors: poverty, frequent exacerbations of the course of mental illness, lack of proper treatment, and lack of psychological support, often determines the receipt of a decision to a 24-hour facility. We will prepare a self-empowerment program for them, so that the Sweet, Sweet Home is only a transitional stage in life, sometimes for organizing social matters, choosing the right treatment, learning the basics of independence. After their stay, they will be able to live, for example, in sheltered flats for mentally ill people run by our organisation.

People with severe mental illnesses who, due to their health condition, require 24/7 support, adequate pharmacotherapy and activating interactions.

People with age-related mental disorders, in particular Alzheimer's disease, for whom care at the place of residence is no longer possible and is a danger to the resident himself or an excessive burden for other family members.

What is a Sweet, Sweet Home? The unique Sweet, Sweet Home actually consists of three houses - three small, intimate facilities located on three consecutive floors of the former school, which we received from the City of Lodz for the implementation of our project. They will perform a nursing, caring, activating and self-empowering function. More details You can find on our website: www.wyjatkowydom.org.pl

From the funds collected as part of the fundraising campaign, a comprehensive renovation of the residential parts of the building will be carried out, along with the purchase of room and sanitary equipment.

The Friends of Disabled Society Association has been dealing with chronically mentally ill people for 30 years. We clearly see a growing problem with providing round-the-clock care to people with mental disorders at various stages of life. The waiting time for a place in the facility center for mentally ill people is over 8 years. For person struggling with mental disorders, it is an eternity in which the worst can happen.

In the photos attached to the fundraising you can see examples of the interiors of other centers run by us - the Friends of Disabled Society Association in Poland (Towarzystwo Przyjaciol Niepelnosprawnych). This is how we want to arrange the house for our future residents. You can be part of this work.