It is owned by a private foundation, made up of a group of parents who, in the early 80s, having achieved proper care for their children in specialised school centres, immediately posed themselves a new challenge: what was to be done with them when they reached eighteen years of age and left school since there were only occupational centres for the mentally handicapped which did not accept them? Besides, we knew this was not what they needed and we refused to resign ourselves to their being put into a mental institution.
During a seminar organised by ACTTAPI professionals we made contact with different European institutions which had some years experience in the care of young and adult autistics and psychotics. And after visiting several facilities, we decided to let ourselves be inspired by the French centre Le Grand Real, of the La Bourgette parents' association, located in the town of La Bastidonne (Provence) which was, and still is, directed by Georges Solheithet.
In 1986, the parents' Foundation drew up the foundational project and in April 1987, with the significant aid of the Generalitat of Catalonia, it acquired the property Mas Casadevall, located in the municipal of Serinyá (Pla de1'Estany) bordering on Banyoles.
The large country property has an extension of 16 hectares, mostly of irrigated crops. There is a wood of 3 hectares and the complex consists of 3 main buildings and annexes suitable for workshops, farm, storage, etc. The whole property made Mas Casadevall ideal for carrying out our objective.
From that moment, the project started to become a reality and we could see how our children's future became less uncertain. The initial uncertainty began to diminish.
Finally, in the autumn of 1988, we were able to open Mas Casadevall (hereafter MC), with a small group of boys and girls.
The system of organisation has at all times been based on two principles:
That is why in the different organs we have sought an equilibrium that allowed the convergence of these two principles, thus:
MC's technical team is made up of the Director, Operative Director, Psychiatrist, Head of Home Services, Workshop Teachers and Home Teachers. The Operative Director is also in charge of directing workshop services.
Having each one's functions clearly defined is not incompatible with a team spirit. The habit of discussing and working out decisions and coordinating, is necessary for the success of such a complex project. So, teachers have two types of meetings:
* General meetings, at which the directors and those in charge get together with all teachers, have the following content:
- understanding of behaviour of each resident and clinical evaluation in the relational and family framework.
- criteria of action
- checking and coordination of teachers' interventions identifying problematic areas
- training
- general information of the Mas.
* Specific meetings govern the daily planning of Home and workshop areas:
a) The content of Workshop Teachers' Meetings is as follows:
assignment and programming of work, assignments to each workshop, productivity, internal dynamics of each workshop, new work proposals, purchasing of material and tools.
b) At Home Teachers Meetings is: functioning guidelines, individual socialising programmes, extra activities, excursions, weekly news and absenteeism.
The residents also have meetings:
In this general outline which we have given, MC offers spaces for work and living that permit young people who have grown up with the deficits of "self" and symbolisation which accompany psychosis and autism, suffered since infancy, to develop to the highest degree of personal autonomy. The labour and prelabour structures act as organising elements of a human function as normal as possible. With the same purpose, the living spaces are organised in a way as close as possible to family units, of friendship and relation with the environment.
In short, MC's work is aimed at developing affective and relational aspects and levels of autonomy, so that neither the residents nor the centre itself be excluded from habitual ways of life.
The daily work at MC has two clear references: a) a set of individual and group tasks and techniques which must make the teacher-resident relationship into a motor of change of the users psychopathology and b) the family of origin, from which specific cooperation is needed case by case.
In this regard, besides work and living spaces, one should speak of a therapeutical and care space that attempts to modify some traits of individual psychopatholgy and which becomes essential for psychotics to adapt themselves and avail themselves of the offer of work and life within their reach.
With serious psychotic pathologies, the challenge of work, which is also so useful and necessary, is to manage to generate desire and gratification, acceptance of external reality, beyond stagnancy in regression, in the immediate satisfaction of impulses, in isolation and in disconnection.
If we do not influence these psychotic nuclei, not only do we not favour personal evolution - therefore, therapeutical - but we could create a stage on which the actors carry out the founders' hopes and the objectives of the ones in charge, but on which the users are simply figures in the play.
A characteristic of psychotic pathology is the partialisation of his or her impulses and affections and the anxiety implied by internal non-differentiation of, sometimes, contradictory aspects.
Then what results is a fragmented, paradoxical and confused communication which obliges teachers to give a response which condenses what he observes directly, to make an hypothesis which approaches the resident to the mentalisation and symbolisation of the behaviour, and that he/she dominate the impact that this behaviour prints on his/her moods and personality.
The constant action of anxiety of the psychotic and the pathological expression of his/her impulses doubtlessly have resonance on the teacher. In short, it obliges a work of institutional nature that guarantees the objectives and that is able to analyse the actitudes and contra-attitudes of the team responsible, in order to find the most efficient responses and protect the mental health of the institution itself.
That's why MC has this space of institutional nature, which the whole team attends in order to find the necessary theory in which to insert the individual and collective response. That is, a space of continued training where everyone can find an institutional response to his or her observations and preoccupations.
2. HOW THE WORKSHOPS FUNCTION.
As we have seen, work is one of the keys of the therapeutic project. The existence of several workshops, with different products, processes, complexity of work, physical environment, work colleagues and teachers, allow to have work environments of very different characteristics.
This makes it possible to evaluate the facility or lack of it for performing specific tasks, adaptation to an open or closed space, difficulty in social contact, interest in each job, relationship with the teacher and, in short, to make work proposals in keeping with the person and the moment.
Presenting these seriously affected people with a productive process they must insert themselves into, is not easy. Different attempts permit to make adapted proposals to, each one, little by little, until arriving at real situations of apprenticeship.
The step to efficiency - showing oneself and others one's usefulness - is not taken rapidly. It could be said that their first task is accepting that work is being done around them; in a later stage it means helping with the work. Then come all the degrees of participation.
For a long time the autistic or psychotic will be someone who works with someone else. Little by little, the moments of taking responsibility will be longer and more defined.
The work hours are from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an hour and a half break for lunch. Weekends are devoted to looking after the farm and crops. The restaurant workshop has a different timetable, conditioned by restaurant hours.
The workshops in function are the following:
3. HOW THE HOMES FUNCTION.
The level of personal autonomy, the capacity to look after oneself, is decisive in a person's life, among other things, because it conditions relations with others.
The current social model dictates that, as the person becomes an adult, he or she should leave the family nucleus to form a new one. Everyone who, for different reasons, does not develop a certain level of personal autonomy remains marginated from habitual social processes. But, if among "normal" people there are great differences, in the case of autistics and psychotics they are much more evident.
And it should not be forgotten that these affected people, who generally behave as very dependent, can potentially be more self-sufficient.
MC has assumed that if structures are formed that foster and help autonomy, an improvement can be obtained, small or large depending on the cases. Therefore, we do our best so that life in the Homes is as similar as possible to the world around them and thus, the Homes drive the residents to achieve a high level of personal self-sufficiency.
The insertion into society of autistics or psychotics with serious disorders is not easy. MC endeavours to work to this end.
Currently we have three Homes, two inside MC and one at Banyoles for those who can benefit more from a social life in town.
4. THE WAY TROD.
Since the creation of MC, the workshops have evolved in number and specialisation, as the integration of new residents made this advisable. There has also been evolution in the necessary tools, such as greenhouses, farm-building, kiln for ceramics and devices for candle-making, etc..
An important step was the creation of a group of initiation of work attitudes, with the specific support of a teacher for this. This group of residents carries out tasks in the different workshops and collaborates in the upkeep of the property.
In the chapter on Homes, the concept of adaptation has also been of great importance: adaptation of the residents to MC, of families to the new situation, of the teachers to the residents.
The initial resistance of the residents was demonstrated in different ways. The different attitudes of the teachers, work with the families and the creation of an environment which respects each individual, with clear but flexible limits, has been one of the resources used.
Of the many things we believe important for the success of the Homes, there are two that we highlight: the work of the teachers in coordination with one another and the subdivision of the Home into three smaller ones, carried out at a certain moment.
To sum up, the residents have, in different degrees, overcome their initial resistances and can now enjoy a life which is a little more self-sufficient, a little more independent, a little more responsible as is demonstrated by their participation in everyday tasks: preparation of meals, care of clothes, shopping, leisure activities, etc..
To conclude, experience at MC has shown that:
In a word, we believe that MC has reduced uncertainty in the future for a group of people, who now have, all in all, more dignified and human perspectives. We hope we have also helped other groups on this way.
Thank you very much.
Barcelona, May 4th 1996.