Gábor Gombos
Ashoka Fellow since 2001   |   Hungary

Gábor Gombos

Mental Health Interest Forum / Pszichiátriai Érdekvédelmi Fórum 
Ashoka commemorates and celebrates the life and work of this deceased Ashoka Fellow.
Gabor Gombos is monitoring and protecting the rights of psychiatric patients while reforming the Hungarian mental health system. He trains consumers, survivors, and former users of psychiatric case to…
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Mental Health Interest Forum / Pszichiátriai Érdekvédelmi Fórum 

http://www.gombosg.fw.hu/
This description of Gábor Gombos's work was prepared when Gábor Gombos was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2001.

Introduction

Gabor Gombos is monitoring and protecting the rights of psychiatric patients while reforming the Hungarian mental health system. He trains consumers, survivors, and former users of psychiatric case to be democratic agents for change. He also educates doctors on patient-centered care.

The New Idea

Gabor challenges and empowers patients to play an active role in transforming social and health care for themselves and other psychiatric patients. He founded the Psychiatric Interest Forum, a three hundred-member organization designed to incubate and network consumer organizations, patientRead more

The Problem

While the incidence of psychiatric illness in Hungary is high, the quality of care is low. There are approximately one hundred thousand people living with schizophrenia and another one hundred thousand battling depression. Over seven thousand of these people live in the country's fifty-threeRead more

The Strategy

Since 1993, Gabor has been setting up support groups for psychiatric patients to focus on specific problems and help with issues such as employment and preparation for family life. By 1999, he had established twenty groups throughout the country involving three hundred patients. Additionally, heRead more

The Person

Brought up by a mother who battled severe depression, Gabor had several revealing glimpses into the Hungarian social care system at an early age. By the time he was a teenager, he had seen how electroshock therapy was stealing his mother's memory and personality. Years later, after a seriousRead more

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