El Bohío

I started work at El Bohío last week, and have been busy trying to wrap my head around mental health services in Argentina ever since.

The agency currently has a staff of about 10, however most are working almost entirely as volunteers as the agency has no money to pay salaries. With the current political regime, funding for mental health services has been cut drastically. This resulted in the agency closing its inpatient program in January and moving to a new location closer to the city. They're currently trying to maintain a day-treatment program to work with addiction and recovery, however, lacking clients and capital.
The public funding which most Argentines receive for health services pays very little for day treatment programs (about $300/month for the 45 hour/week program). Extra subsidies are available through government entities and private foundations (both national and international) which El Bohío is hoping to use to sustain their mission.

My schedule has been divided into morning work researching subsidies and grants and spending the afternoon with clients while developing a program for family work. (We are currently looking into adapting the Celebrating Families model I used while working at EMQ.)
However, the best part of the day is always lunch. As part of the rehabilitation program, the clients are learning to cook healthy meals, and this training takes place daily while cooking lunch for the staff. Typical lunches include homemade pastas, risotto, and rice dumplings with salads (usually a grated carrot salad topped with oil and vinegar dressing), with an occasional dessert of bread pudding, or fruit. We eat lunches together as a group, which is a great time to come together and talk, when the rest of the day is busy and chaotic.