Švab Vesna

red. prof. dr. Vesna Švab

Kratek življenjepis

Prof. dr. Vesna Švab od leta 1990 dela kot specialistka psihiatrije, večinoma s pacienti s psihotičnimi duševnimi motnjami in na področju psihiatrične rehabilitacije. Je soustanoviteljica ter predsednica največje slovenske nevladne organizacije na področju psihosocialne rehabilitacije oseb s hudimi duševnimi motnjami. Je vodja programa Skupnostne psihiatrije v Republiki Sloveniji. Objavila je preko 250 vrhunskih znanstvenih del.

Curriculum Vitae

Qualifications   
I am psychiatrist working in outpatient clinic in primary health center leading community psychiatric service in a rural area. I am university teacher. I co-established National Organization for Mental Health ŠENT in 1992, being also ŠENT president for more then10 years. In this time ŠENT became the largest NGO in Slovenia working with people with mental disorders, providing services for employment, education, housing, advocacy, leading antistigma programme in Slovenia and also participating in numerous EU programmes including antidiscrimination movement. I am publicly engaged in the movement towards deinstitutionalization in Slovenia. I was participating in working groups for preparing Slovene Mental Health Law and National Mental Health Plan, drafting and implementing chapters on antidiscrimination and community treatment and care. I established close cooperation with family practitioners and social workers in Slovenia to move care from institutions to community. I was preparing and cooperated in establishing public financing for two programmes for community treatment and care for people with severe mental disorders. I am currently leading education on community care and human rights for community care working groups and still working in a steering committee for preparation and implementation of National Mental Health Plan 2018-2028 leading the Interdisciplinary groups  Services Network and Mental Health Education. I was co working in reports about mental health situation in Slovenia in the view of human rights with NGO ŠENT. I am included in different international organizations Mental Health Europe, EUFAMI and other organizations protecting human rights of people with mental disorders. I was lecturing and presenting our work in many international meetings and at other public events.

Expertise
I am all the time practicing psychiatrist and I treat people with mental disorders I am cooperating with service users and their carers in Slovenia and abroad for more than 20 years. I was participating in three large EU researches about stigma and discrimination: International Study on Stigma and Discrimination in Schizophrenia, Antistigma European Network and A Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe. My PhD and Masters Diploma are about community care and human rights. My expertise is acquired through research, international cooperation and above all from continuous direct contact with service users.  I was also involved in the process of preparing grounds for implementation of UNCRPD principles to the National Plan for Mental Health and in the relevant public debates in Slovenia and internationally. I helped in preparing comments on Article 19 CRPD. I am currently working in Mental Health Center in Slovenia and leading a community psychiatric treatment group in the national level, preparing and conducting education and research.

Established competence
My work is internationally relevant through my publications and regionally through public presentations and publications in Slovenia. I am well known as a professional with high standards regarding human rights protection for people with mental disorders. In the public press in last year I was publishing about rights of people with mental disorders in the time of economic crisis and about the need for deinstitutionalization in Slovenia.

I published over 250 bibliographic units about stigma and discrimination, about psychosocial rehabilitation and mental health reform. I was the editor of the first Slovenian Textbook on Psychosocial rehabilitation and published three chapters in the Slovenian Textbook for medical students Psychiatry, as well as monography on Stigma and Mental Disorders. I am an expert witness in psychiatry.