NewMind, Portugal

Project name: NewMind

Project location: The Project will take place in Oeiras and will be delievered by Associação 4 Patas 1 Crina, a non profit health and education organization. 4 Patas 1 Crina has a partnership with Clube Unesco Hipica de Oeiras, a riding center certified by Unesco, in Oeiras, close to Lisbon.

Website: http://quatropataseumacri.wixsite.com/4patas1crina/about

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EquinaTerapia/

Project description:

NewMind is a project for adolescents at risk of social exclusion due to beavioural problems, such as offensive or agressive behavior, that are not responding to conventional approaches. We will be using horsemanship games because they use both horse and human body language as the main channel for communication to occur. The fact we’ll be using body oriented techniques allows participants to gain conscience of how emotions influence our body language, attitude and behaviours. Horsemanship games and interactions clearly teach the difference between passive, aggressive and assertive communication. The ability to distinguish between these types of communication and to communicate in an assertive way is considered a protective factor against mental health and behavior problems, leading to more adaptive behaviors towards life, personal and social interactions. The program will network with the community: we have partnerships in the community with psychotherapy and psychology services with whom we will be working on referrals and on the program evaluation.

Goal and purpose of the project:

Our goal is to improve psychosocial functioning in the group of adolescents attending the program. We will be working on the following skills: Engagement; Calmness; Assertiveness; Focus & Perseverance; Communication; Empathy; Responsibility; These skills will improve relationships with family, peers, professionals and school outcomes and will reduce costs to public services. Our purpose is to evaluate this program so it can be replicated across national or international territory.
 

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

Many Portuguese adolescents face risk of social exclusion due to behavior problems. This happens because public mental health services have long waiting lists and people cannot afford private services; adolescents are very resistant towards conventional approaches and there are no community-based programs for adolescents with mental health issues. Our motivation is to prove that is possible to combine nature, horses and emotional healing and that therapy and change can occur outside conventional approaches.
 

Use of prize money:

The program has 3 phases: 1- evaluate and choose referrals, 2months; phase 2- program intervention, 8 months; phase 3- where we will evaluate the program’s result, 2months.
The prize money will cover for the 8months of therapy sessions (12000euros).The rest of the money (3000euros) will be used to cover for the hours of work spent on the referrals and evaluation process and to cover for part of the transportation, of the adolescents attending the program facing economic adversity.