Gold Synapse for Jurek Owsiak and the GOCC

Gold Synapse for the GOCC

16 December 2019

Medical professionals decided to award the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation a Gold Synapse award in the "Friends fo Psychiatry" category. The category is meant to honour individuals and organisations working to support psychiatric care in the country and supports patient's rights. The winners of the plebiscite were announced during the annual International Congress.

In the spring of 2018, responding to the catastrophic conditions at public psychiatric wards for children and young adults, the board of the Foundation decided to use the money raised through charitable tax return donation (Polish taxpayers can choose an NGO, which will receive a 1% of their tax) to buy equipment for psychiatric wards. We knew that the situation was dire, but we had no inkling as to how adverse the conditions at psychiatric wards was - says Jurek Owsiak, chairman of the board of the Foundation.

The charity was able to donate equipment to 34 psychiatric wards for children and young adults. We bought and gave 1308 pieces of equipment - including some of the most basic, yet most necessary pieces of furniture.

798 - bed sets (mattress, bedside cabinet and bed linens)
510 - comfortable beanbags

We purchased equipment worth nearly PLN 3 000 000, and we were able to exchange pieces of furniture which served patients at psychiatric wards for years. The furniture we replaced was in awful condition. We are currently looking into buying specialist tests used by doctors to diagnose their youngest patients.

It seems that we are working against the clock itself - doctors and researchers warn that the number of children and young adults who need psychiatric care is on the rise. Studies found that each fifth young person in Poland struggles with mental health, while each tenth young person requires medical attention and support from the professionals.

It's incredibly challenging to help the branch of medicine which, seemingly, has been forgotten by the entire healthcare system in the country. As soon as we began to work out what we wanted to buy for children's psych wards, we heard that hospitals and departments were being shut down. Wards were suspended. The entire healthcare system in Poland is struggling - there are not enough doctors, and we are short on qualified medical professionals. Psychiatry is one of the most underfunded branches of medicine in the country. Wards are catastrophically under-equipped. Standards fall short what we can see in Europe. Children and young adults struggle with their mental health, and the number of patients is on the rise

Jurek Owsiak