GGZ Dijk en Duin has, in cooperation with refugees and Medical Care, developed a program on mental-health education. The program is developed to support asylum seekers and refugees and is given in own language and taken original culture into account. Specially educated asylum seekers and refugees run the program together with the GGZ, mental health institutes.
The aim of the programme is to learn how to cope with the actual situation and loss of identity. Attention is also paid to coping with psychosocial problems that are a direct or indirect result of events that happened in the past in their country of origin, during flight and afterwards.
Stress, grief, feelings of guilt, isolation from culture, trauma, alcohol and/or drug abuse and the daily problems of life in an asylum seeker centre often trouble refugees. These subjects are addressed in the groups by communicating information on psychological and psychosocial processes that are common among refugees via group discussions with fellow refugees. Relaxation exercises and cognitive techniques aimed at coping with the problems mentioned and exercises directed at rediscovering their own possibilities, strengths and self-empowerment are also addressed.
Autumn 2005 we are develloping a train the trainers program to start parenting support groups for asylum seekers in AZC's and for refugees who seek support to bring up their children in the new situation.

The program Mind-Spring is offered to asylum seekers living in AZC's at the moment in 14 locations in the Netherlands . The program is successfully offered to refugees (people with a license to stay in Holland ) outside centre.
To be able to offer the program we have cooperation with many GGZ institutes in the Netherlands , the Medical Care (MOA), the COA (Central Organ opvang Asielzoekers) , VluchtelingenWerk, Pharos and GGZ Netherlands.

The program is owned by preventie GGZ Dijk en Duin and supported by a project advice group in which the already mentioned organisations are represented..