World Mental Health Day at the Caraes Psychiatric Centre in Ndera, Rwanda

Kigali, 11 October 2021 - On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, the President of Fracarita International, Br. Dr. René Stockman, had the opportunity during his visit to Rwanda to witness this commemoration at our psychiatric centre Caraes in Ndera. He had great admiration for the way the different departments presented their service in a visual and creative way.

The first stand referred to the past, when psychiatric patients were still locked up in prisons and some were brought to the facility handcuffed.

In his speech to the staff, he discussed the importance of "presence" in the care of psychiatric patients and used the apt image that with one mouth and two ears we should be specialists in active listening as a basic attitude to the "presence theory".

He also congratulated the management that had just taken the decision to establish a rehabilitation centre for the long-term in-patients and a department for forensic psychiatry in order to be able to receive and treat patients coming from prisons even better.