Are mental health problems a sign of weakness?
Mental health disorders are a disease, not a sign of a weak person. This is a very wrong belief, similar to saying that only weak people get the flu, diabetes or any other disease. Such thinking is not only wrong, but also harmful and stigmatizes mental health. This opinion is especially common among people who have never experienced mental health disorders in their immediate environment. However, it must be remembered that none of us is immune from mental health disorders, so it is especially important when difficulties arise to take care of our emotional health, to distance ourselves from the extremely harmful “advice” that is unfortunately still common in society, to look at people with more serious problems and not to think nonsense.
It is important to know – fighting with mental problems requires a lot of strength and inner strength.
Only you can take the first step towards your emotional well-being.
Contact a Welfare consultant.

On February 2nd, the first seminar for the involvement of ward staff and community representatives in the model took place.

The entire cycle of seminars includes 3 seminars of 4 hours each for each of the four target groups consisting of 10 people each. During the seminars, attention is paid to identifying persons with psychological difficulties and problems, maintaining contact, motivating and encouraging them to seek help. Seminars are organized in municipal wards, ward representatives, community representatives and other interested persons are invited.

In order to create suitable and modern working conditions for the well-being consultant’s office, all the necessary furniture was purchased and installed, as well as a water stand and a coffee machine for the convenience of the client and the consultant.
The address of the welfare consultant’s office is Ligoninė st. 13, Ignalina.
We invite you to register for a consultation
A handout created for the purpose of publicizing the services provided by welfare consultants in the Ignalina district – the newspaper of the welfare consultant. The printed form of the newspaper will be distributed through various district institutions and organizations. We invite you to read the online newspaper here

On 12/13/2022, the Ignalina district newspaper “Mūsų Ignalina” published an article presenting the services of a Welfare consultant and a success story illustrating the benefits of consultations.

You can read the text of the article below:

Emotional health is an integral part of our overall well-being. Everyone has faced smaller or bigger challenges at least once in their life: some people can talk about their problems with their loved ones, others find it very difficult to talk and keep everything to themselves. People tend to compare their problems with others, but you should understand that this is inappropriate and no matter what problems others are facing, it does not make your problems any less important. Remember that asking for help is completely normal, so you shouldn’t feel bad about it. Sometimes it can be difficult to start talking about it, but the constant discomfort of an unresolved issue can only make it worse later.

The goal of the project – “Implementation of the model of welfare consultants in the Ignalina district municipality” is to improve the health and social well-being of the residents of the Ignalina district municipality. It is expected that thanks to the project, the health indicators of the residents of the Ignalina district municipality will improve, mental illnesses and emotional disorders will decrease, residents will be more productive and social exclusion will decrease.

Wellfare consultant is a specialist with a qualified education and completed special training in low-intensity emotional counseling of persons experiencing psychological and emotional difficulties, based on cognitive and behavioral therapy. Helping a wellfare consultant at an early stage of the problem is aimed at preventing the onset of depression and thereby contributing to reducing the number of suicides.

The benefits brought by consultations are perfectly illustrated by the case of Lina (name changed):

Lina, a young, married woman, mother of a two-year-old boy, felt unhappy, but she could not even tell herself exactly why. After all, she has a wonderful family and she can’t complain about her financial situation or your physical health. However, she realized that she was no longer satisfied with her life. She felt constant fatigue, cried after a somewhat more stressful day, finally realized that even small arguments with her husband or son flare up and she reacts aggressively. The relationship with her husband became strained, apart from constant arguments, she also received comments for her hot reactions to her son’s pranks. These situations put a lot of pressure on Lina psychologically, she felt constant pangs of conscience. And she herself admitted that she does not control her emotions. The fact that Lina and her husband had been planning a second child for some time also contributed to her poor state of health. Although she hadn’t been planning for long enough to be worried, Lina felt disappointed in herself every month after her failed pregnancy attempt. The desire to get pregnant was often replaced by the fear of possible complications of the future pregnancy, about which Lina did not miss the opportunity to search for information every day and even more grew groundless fear in herself. Lina found out about the services of a Welfare consultant quite by chance – after seeing information about Welfare consultants on Facebook. When she found out that this service is also offered in her city – Ignalina, she decided to try it without delay. Already after the first consultation, Lina said that she got food for thought and realized what mistakes she made with her thoughts and actions, harming herself and her emotional health. One of the most important steps towards realizing the mistakes was sharing my experiences with the Welfare consultant, the opportunity to hear myself as if from the side. After applying the methods of cognitive and behavioral therapy, actively working with herself not only during consultations but also doing “homework”, Lina learned to control her emotions, learned the correct breathing technique to relax when overcome by anger or fear outbreaks, and also began to think more responsibly about her actions and limited yourself from unnecessary information that causes negative emotions. She included time for herself in her schedule, which she spent doing sports or meeting with friends.

This counseling success story perfectly shows why it is worth applying, even when you think you don’t have serious problems, but you just feel lost, preventing the deterioration of your psycho-emotional condition, depression. The services of a welfare consultant are intended for all adult residents of the Ignalina district who have mild symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, experience various fears, insomnia, have encountered problems and do not know how to help themselves control their emotions.

Registration for consultation: www.geroveignalinoje.lt, or phone: 8 622 28895, 8 619 28887

The project is implemented under the program “Health” with the funds of the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism.

Do you feel anxious, stressed, don’t know how to help yourself and who to talk to?
We invite you to the informational event of the implementation of the model of welfare consultants in the municipality of Ignalina district.
Who is a welfare consultant?
WELLFARE CONSULTANT – a specialist who has the required education and has completed special training in low-intensity emotional counseling of persons experiencing psychological and emotional difficulties, based on cognitive and behavioral therapy.
The project “Implementation of the model of welfare consultants in the municipality of Ignalina district” is dedicated to the reduction and prevention of health inequalities in the municipality of Ignalina district. Project
provides measures to improve the availability and quality of community mental health services.
The event will take place on November 25 at 1:00 p.m. (duration 4 hours) at the Ignalina nuclear power plant regional public service business center, Ateities st 23, Ignalina.
At the event, we will present the services of a well-being consultant in more detail, we will talk about good emotional and physical health, positive thinking. We will learn to recognize and evaluate stressful situations and, thanks to positive thinking, it is easier to solve them.
Coffee/tea and cookies will be available during the break. We will end the event by inviting you to participate in a quiz and awarding the winners.
The event is FREE
You’ve probably already heard that Wellfare Consultants use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to provide counseling.
CBT is a scientifically based and proven targeted method of changing thoughts and behaviors aimed at eliminating symptoms or improving adaptation.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the assumption that our thoughts, emotions and behavior are very closely related and affect each other, a person’s well-being is determined by his thinking, so how we feel does not depend on specific life events in a roundabout way, but on how we accept them.
KET focuses on current events in a person’s life, researches and solves specific problems, and does not look for answers in the person’s past or subconscious.
How do you know if Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is right for you?
The most important thing you should know – CBT requires the active participation of the person and his efforts in the therapeutic process, so it is effective only if you want and are determined to actively work on solving your problem – even only during the meeting with the Welfare consultant, but also after the consultation, by doing “homework” .
How to register for a consultation with a welfare consultant?
Select the menu section “Registration”, press. The registration form will load.
In the registration form, select the date and time convenient for you and press the “Next” button.
In the next step, you will have to specify your contact details – name, surname, e-mail address and phone number Press “Confirm”.
Congratulations, you have registered for the first consultation!
You should have received confirmation via the email address provided.
Can’t get it? Then just get in touch with one of the welfare advisors using the given contacts.
The educational posters of the project “Implementation of the model of welfare consultants in the municipality of Ignalina district” were laid out, printed and displayed on the bulletin boards of various institutions of the Ignalina district.
The project’s publicity tools, including posters, aim to inculcate in the residents of Ignalina the attitude that seeking help is normal and shameless (currently, mental and emotional problems are still often stigmatized in society, they are not talked about out loud).
The poster designs were created taking into account three age groups (youth, adults and the elderly), a modern design was chosen, the focus of which was the slogan #ŽmogusŽmogui #Human to Human.
Slogan #ŽmogusŽmogui is chosen purposefully in order to provide trust in the services of a well-being consultant and not to be afraid to apply, to state that consultations are not a matter-of-fact cold meeting between a specialist and a patient, but a warmer, more human conversation helping to solve the applicant’s problems.
The renovation of the welfare consultant’s office has been completed.
Welfare consultant services will be provided at the address – Ligonine st. 13, Ignalina. The location of the welfare consultant services will be in a comfortable, quiet place where the welfare consultants will be happy to work and the applicants will feel safe and secure.
In order for the premises to be suitable for the provision of such services, simple repair work was carried out, and a separate waiting room for customers was installed, allowing to distance oneself from the area of ​​people’s movement.
The workplace will soon be equipped with modern equipment and tools that will create a positive meeting environment and help break down communication barriers.
Stay tuned, soon we will invite you to visit the well-being consultant’s office, and for now we invite you to register for remote consultations.
The project is implemented with the funds of the financial mechanism of the European Economic Area
On 04/12/2022, the contract for the repair of the Gerovės consultants’ office (address Ligoninės st. 13, LT-30112 Ignalina) was signed with UAB “Ostertus”

Duration of repair works 2 months.