Carla's Mental Health volunteering Bali - SLV Global June 18

Carla Millington Start Date: Sep 9, 2017 - End Date: Jan 8, 2018
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Volunteer Trip
  • Bali, Indonesia

My Travel Story

by: Carla Millington Start Date: Sep 9, 2017 - End Date: Jan 8, 2018
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Volunteer Trip
Mental health is a massive part of my psychology degree, and in many places it is heavily mis-understood and untreated. Bali is one of the places where resources to treat mental health are scarce, and is not treated seriously. Due of this, those that are in need of help remain ill and untreated due to a limitation of doctors available and lack of available treatment. This is the case for not just Bali, but many places such as Sri Lanka and India.

The SLV Global Mental Health Placement was set up to help places such a Bali, by volunteering our resources they so desperatly need. It is run by Psychology graduates aiming to gather psychology minded volunteers to help make a difference to the lives of people suffering from mental health in Bali and Sri Lanka.

Thanks to SLV Global, I have the amazing opportunity to work in Bali for 4 weeks doing a voluntary mental health placement. My 4 weeks will consist of very hands on and challenging work, helping in Bali's only outpatient psychiatric facility, and run therapeutic sessions in a variety of ways, providing them much needed stimulation and human contact. Not only this, I will have non-stop weeks of psychology focussed workshops on global approaches to mental health, helping the children's development who come from very difficult backgrounds, through activities, exploring their emotions and teaching them English in fun and creative ways.

A big part of my trip will also involve working with patients with special needs, as on average of 26% of psychatric inmates have overlapping additional needs such as autism. I will be working in schools to help these children, where facilities are under-rescourced snd teachers could use our support and knowledge. This will involve a lot of physical and mental activites to help engage with these patients, to help unlock their creative potential.

As well as all the hard work I'll be doing within the Communtiy, all of the volunteers will be living with a local homestay family in Balinese Village. Facilities will be basic and the families will provide us with breakfast and dinner during our working week, which will be traditional Indonesian cuisine. I will be doing this completely alone so it will be very scary, but im sure I will have an amazing experience and meet amazing people.

I am SO grateful of this opportunity, as mental heath is very hard to gain experince in, and to be able to work and explore this in a completely different culture will be amazing. It will be a lot of hard work, at times challenging, and a massive change for me as I have never travelled alone before and now im going to the other side of the world! But I am so excited to experience what mental health is like in Bali and help to make a difference to their lives.

This placement is completely voluntary and I will be paying for all costs myself; placement fees, flights, visa, jabs etc, and as a student this is quite a lot of money, but for a very very worthy cause. I will be working so hard for this trip, as i already have been, and saving as much as I possibly can whilst at uni, but any extra help people are willing to donate I would be so grateful. Any money donated would go towards my placement fees, which fund the extremly hard working SLV Global team to provide this amazing experience. These fee's cover my 4 week stay, all workshops, work in the hosptials and psychatric unit, training, my homestay and 24 hour support. No matter if its little or big your donations would be a massive help towards me on my journey and like I said, would all be going towards funding my amazing experience.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and i'll keep you all updated on my journey xxx
  • Bali, Indonesia

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