Experiences with individual psychological counselling in the districts of Hódmezővásárhely and Makó

Abstract

Since its establishment in 2008, the Healthy Vásárhely Program of Hódmezővásárhely has aimed to improve the physical and mental health of the population. In 2018, the services of the Makó and the Healthy Vásárhely Program Health Promotion Office were expanded with mental health promotion functions financed by the European Union. In the framework of the project, individual psychological counseling was implemented for the population of the two counties. In addition, other mental health programs were implemented for the community, such as lectures, group activities, and residential events. However, experience shows that the most effective intervention method is individual counseling, with the help of which we managed to give personalized support for almost 460 patients in the past four years. The opportunities provided by each situation have several advantages, as the patient can feel safer, receive more attention, and the problem can be treated individually. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that due to characteristics of the settlements and closed communities, participants may fear breach of confidentiality during group sessions and events. Overall, we would like to emphasize the necessity of individual psychological counseling. Compared to group counseling and community health promotion programs, it is a more time-consuming and less cost-effective method, but it is more effective and suitable for achieving longer-term results, a more personalized and flexible form of assistance. Therefore, we maintain individual psychological counseling after finishing our European Union project, since our goal is to make available to the population a service that fills a gap and is indispensable, free of charge.