Let's heal with care! - is the title of a competition that recognises initiatives of non-profit organisations that restore the human dimension to medicine. On Thursday, 21 November 2024, we announced its winners, who will receive grants totalling PLN 100,000 from the project organiser Teva Pharmaceuticals Polska. Among the five awardees were: "To the Rescue of Children with Cancer" Foundation, Kangaroo Family Foundation, Association of Youth and People with Mental Problems, Their Families and Friends "Pomost" - Centerko, "When Time Counts" Foundation and Rak'n'Roll Foundation. Win Life!
- We know the results of the first Polish edition of Teva's global programme entitled Humanising Health - Let's treat with care! The awards, totalling PLN 100,000, recognise initiatives that promote improvements in patients' quality of life.
- The 5 award-winning projects focus on helping children with oncology, parents of children with disabilities, people with mental disorders, mothers of young patients in hospital, and women after oncology treatment.
- The competition received 60 entries from non-profit organisations from all over Poland. From these, the finalists and winners of Let's Treat with Care! were selected, who are carrying out extremely valuable activities for the benefit of patients and their relatives.
Diseases, especially chronic diseases, strongly affect both the physical and mental health of patients. In the treatment process, support and care for them - support provided by medical staff and loved ones - remain invariably important alongside the treatment itself. However, it is not always possible for the healthcare system or the patient's environment to cope with all challenges. In such situations, the support of associations and foundations that work with patients and their carers is invaluable. It is to them that the competition is addressed Let us treat with care! Its idea is to promote and recognise initiatives that help the healing process, foster optimism and help patients to see life not only through the prism of their illness, as well as facilitating access to treatment.
On 21 November 2024, the awards ceremony of the first Polish edition of the competition took place in Warsaw. They went to the authors of five projects that stood out for lifting the spirits of patients and their carers and bringing more humanity into patient care. The grand prize winner received a cheque for PLN 40,000 and the other four received cheques for PLN 15,000. The prize pool is a total of PLN 100,000 in grants to continue existing activities.
The following initiatives were among those awarded:
- World Experience Room - A project to support children with cancer and their families by setting up Snoezelen therapy rooms in 4 paediatric oncology centres in Poland. Organised by the Foundation to the Rescue of Children with Cancer, grand prize winner.
- Week of Intensive Rest - an initiative for families of children with disabilities, which consists of organising away-from-home holidays that include lectures, workshops and relaxation time for carers, while also providing childcare. Organised by the Kangaroo Family Foundation.
- Activating people with mental illness through volunteering - A project using voluntary activities as a tool of therapy and rehabilitation for people with mental problems. Organised by: Association of Youth and People with Mental Problems, Their Families and Friends "Pomost", Centerko.
- Mama's beauty - an initiative aimed at carers of children with oncology patients as well as patients and others in need of support, to whom it offers metamorphoses and moments of respite. Organised by the "When Time Counts" Foundation.
- KancerSutra - a project aimed at rebuilding women's relationship with their own bodies in the context of oncology treatment through, among other things, stationary and online workshops. Organised by the Rak'n'Roll Foundation. Win Life!
- The entire Polish Teva team is strongly committed to improving the quality of life of patients and their families. I am proud that we are giving additional expression to this through the Treat with Care! competition and the recognition of initiatives carried out by foundations and associations working in the field of healthcare. The winners of the first edition of our competition have produced remarkable projects, demonstrating creative approaches to the challenges of illness and being moving examples of caring for others. To the winners, and to all those who entered Let's treat with care!, many thanks for their commitment and passion for improving the health of us all - said Ewa Królikowska, CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals Poland.
The Let's heal with care! competition was launched on 20 May 2024; until 15 September, not-for-profit organisations could submit entries for their pro-patient projects. The organisers received as many as 60 such submissions, from among which the Selection Committee and the Teva team in Poland selected the winners of the competition, taking into account, among other things, the scope of the initiatives, their innovation and their usefulness for those concerned, i.e. patients and carers.
Ambassadors of the campaign are: Edyta Jungowska - actress, Professor Cezary Szczylik - oncologist and Dorota Czekaj, president of the Network of Entrepreneurial Women and privately a patient.
The competition is organised by Teva Pharmaceuticals Polska. The project's content patron is the Institute for Patient Rights and Health Education, and the media patrons are PAP and Rzeczpospolita.
More information - https://www.teva.pl/leczmy-z-troska/