{"id":13782,"date":"2026-10-15T15:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/izvestaj\/u-pirotu-odrzan-prvi-festival-mentalnog-zdravlja\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:06:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T14:06:49","slug":"u-pirotu-odrzan-prvi-festival-mentalnog-zdravlja","status":"publish","type":"izvestaj","link":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/izvestaj\/u-pirotu-odrzan-prvi-festival-mentalnog-zdravlja\/","title":{"rendered":"First Mental Health Festival Held in Pirot"},"content":{"rendered":"

This October, Pirot hosted the Mental Health Festival<\/a> for the first time. Twelve festival days and twenty free programmes, for children, young people, parents, adults and the elderly, were organised by the association \u201cGnezdo \u2013 Centre for Mental Health and Community Development<\/a>\u201d, following the methodology and with the mentorship of the Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina<\/a>, which launched the festival and coordinates it in several cities across Serbia. The theme of this year’s edition was \u201cFreedom, Security and Mental Health\u201d, and the slogan \u201cSafe in an (Un)safe World?\u201d.<\/p>\n

The festival opened with a panel discussion in the Glass Hall of the Pirot National Library<\/a>. The participants were \u010cedomir \u0160agri\u0107, head of the Centre for Health Promotion at the Institute of Public Health Ni\u0161; Koviljka Stamenovi\u0107, a psychologist and president of the Pirgos art Association of Visual Artists; and Aleksandar Radulovi\u0107, an actor and artistic director of the National Theatre in Pirot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why are prejudices the biggest obstacle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The festival was preceded by a community activation phase. While flyers were being handed out around the city, many passers-by reacted with jokes, quips such as \u201cI’m crazy too\u201d and \u201che needs to get himself sorted\u201d, with a mix of emotions, through smiles and embarrassment. Vanja \u017diki\u0107<\/strong> of the \u201cGnezdo\u201d association says this is an accurate picture of an environment where stigma around mental health still exists, and that in such an environment neither the shortcomings of the health system nor the cost of psychotherapy are the biggest obstacle, but prejudice is.<\/p>\n

Contact was also established with secondary school students, who signed up to volunteer at the festival. After the festival, \u201cGnezdo\u201d plans workshops for young people and parents, which will also involve professionals from institutions who offered to continue the work on their own. The association’s role, \u017diki\u0107 says, is to help carry out programmes, connect experts and organisations, and help institutions recognise the needs of their community.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe most important thing is that the festival does not remain the project of one organisation, but becomes something the community recognises as its own. That next year we do not start from zero again, but have more people who want to take part, more collaboration and a clearer picture of what Pirot needs,\u201d<\/em> says Vanja \u017diki\u0107.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What do parents learn at the workshop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the festival’s programmes was the parents’ workshop \u201cParenting Skills \u2013 Emotional Regulation\u201d, led by \u010cedomir \u0160agri\u0107 and Ivana Vra\u010dki\u0107<\/strong>, a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and president of the \u201cSerbian Association of Cognitive Behavioural Therapists<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was not conceived as a lecture. \u201cInformation means nothing, nor does it change behaviour,\u201d<\/em> says \u0160agri\u0107. The idea is to awaken the capacities parents already have and to give them simple, professionally and scientifically tested tools. Concrete situations are practised, and parents learn from one another through examples of good and bad solutions from their own experience. The tools are often very simple, yet parents had not thought about them. There are no ready-made formulas, because families, children and parents are not the same, and there is room for one’s own creativity.<\/p>\n

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\u201cParenting has turned into a process of constant worry,\u201d says \u0160agri\u0107. Parents find it hard to accept any departure from the pattern they imagined, so they look for security in control. \u201cControl is always a lack of freedom,\u201d<\/em> he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u0160agri\u0107 comes to the workshop not as a psychotherapist but as a public health expert.<\/p>\n

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\u201cClinical practice sees nothing until the person with a problem arrives\u201d<\/em>, he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Public health begins much earlier: with services adapted to young people, an education system that recognises the challenges of growing up, and organised free time. Treating an individual has limited reach if they return to the environment that created the problem in the first place.<\/p>\n

What does the European Union say about mental health?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This approach is close to what the European Union advocates. In June 2023, the European Commission<\/a> presented a comprehensive approach to mental health, based on three principles: effective prevention, access to quality and affordable support and treatment, and reintegration into society after recovery. Mental health cannot be the responsibility of the health system alone, and should be included in all areas of public policy, because it is also affected by education, work, family and community. Prevention, empowering parents and support without shame were also among the themes of the festival in Pirot.<\/p>\n

\u010cedomir \u0160agri\u0107’s participation in the festival programme was supported by European House Ni\u0161<\/a>, which, together with the Institute of Public Health Ni\u0161, also takes part in the work of the Mental Health Club of the City of Ni\u0161<\/a>. This cooperation connects experts and initiatives from Ni\u0161 and Pirot, so that support for mental health can be developed in line with the needs of the local community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This October, Pirot hosted the Mental Health Festival for the first time. Twelve festival days and twenty free programmes, for children, young people, parents, adults and the elderly, were organised by the association \u201cGnezdo \u2013 Centre for Mental Health and Community Development\u201d, following the methodology and with the mentorship of the Institute of Public Health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13783,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13782","izvestaj","type-izvestaj","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"Grad":"Ni\u0161","Vreme":"20261015","vreme_zavrsetka":"20261015","test_ripiter":null,"Kategorija":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/izvestaj\/13782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/izvestaj"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/izvestaj"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/izvestaj\/13782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13786,"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/izvestaj\/13782\/revisions\/13786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropskakuca.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}