"Participating 2015-2017 in The CARe Network's Train-the-Trainers Programme, I got to know so many wonderful people who are supporting vulnerable people in their recovery process and creating new community services in their country." - Aster Tooma

Aster's trip to Rijeka, Zagreb (Croatia) and Trieste (Italy). This was a networking, sharing experience and empowering each other in promoting citizenship and community-based living.

"As Estonia and Croatia are both in middle of Deinstitutionalization (DI) process, focus on changes in the mental health system and developing new community services, we decided to organise the "learn and share" visit in Croatia. In the beginning of June, AS Hoolekandeteenused (Estonia) representatives visited Rijeka, Trieste and Zagreb. In Rijeka, Martina Kalcic and Alenka hosted us, and they organised for us a round trip in Rijeka and nearby mountains area Delnice and Mrkopalj. These are the two places where they have opened the community living flats and house for people who had lived in institutions.

On the second day, Martina arranged for us a visit to Trieste, where we had very interesting conversations with the Head of Barcola Mental Health Centre. Their experiences were very impressive, how all the support in mental health care have organized on different levels in community and people's homes, and there is no psychiatric hospital in town. On last day, we reached Zagreb and had reunion with Radmila Stojanovic Babic, Deni Brnjak and Dalibor Fijan, as they introduced their NGO Susret and told us about their point of views about DI process in Croatia. In the entire trip, we had full of discussions, new emotions, new thoughts and understanding about this field. We found a lot of similarities and also some differences in community living services and DI process in both countries. We talked about strengths and bottlenecks in our societies. Estonia is some steps forward with laws and services that help people to enter again to the labor market, in Croatia that kind of possibilities have not yet happened, but hopefully our shared experiences gave some ideas and motivation to go on with that soon.

In conclusion, I felt that people whom we met in different places were satisfied, happy and proud of their independence and new life in the community. That kind of meetings is truly inspirational and powerful. I am very thankful for belonging to The CARe Network where so many experiences and dedicated people are connected."

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 - Updates from Aster Tooma, Ada, Martina Kalcic