Since 2023, Patrik Herman has been working on the STVR show Občan za durevi, in which he and his team help people facing various life challenges. Before that, it gained popularity in marquee projects Lantern and Reflex. However, he also encounters the difficult fates of citizens in his private life.
The presenter confided in the fans about his ordeal on the social network. “It’s four o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep… I have a hard day ahead of me and I’m in total confusion and pressure in my head” he initially stated on his Facebook profile on Thursday. “I didn’t hear from you for a long time. I stopped at the beginning of the year because I stopped seeing the meaning of what I was doing… I went round and round writing about what I thought was useful and important… and one day I sort of resigned,” he openly admitted.
He then shared a bitter experience that deeply affected him. “A few hours ago, I was at a meeting in the IP (organizations of young psychologists who lend a helping hand to young people in difficult life situations on the threshold of life and death) heard the speech of the mother of a 15-year-old boy. Of a mother who did everything she could do and everything she did right to save her son… in absolute silence, breathless, even with tears in my eyes we all listened to the details about how she couldn’t find help anywhere and from anyone,” told the story of a woman with a difficult fate.
According to him, she didn’t get the help her son needed. “Step by step details of how the system in this country has failed day by day. How sick is this country, in which the child’s mother walks on her knees from door to door and the system does not understand her, ignores her, has no time for her and her son. And that was a rare case, since her son asked for help himself, cooperated, wanted to know what was happening to him, called for help together with his mother.” remarked the former Marquis.
It seems they should have gotten the short end of the stick. “Overburdened psychologists and psychiatrists, destroyed by the system, the lack of experts and the onslaught of people calling for help and on the other hand a mother with a boy who will only get 15 minutes of therapy with the same questions, what grade you are in and what you will do on the weekend and other dates in sight… they needed help right away, here and now, she didn’t come.” he pointed out sadly.
He immediately expressed his impressions of the Slovak woman who lost her child. “I admired the woman for having the courage to speak publicly a few months after the death of her son. I almost went crazy when she said that she would prefer to go to see her son. She decided to devote her remaining time on this world to opening the eyes of everyone… to show how the system is failing tragically, how something is seriously broken in this country and something needs to be done about it, because a person doesn’t even realize it and the next time it could be their child.” Herman is worried.
The words of the unknown woman echoed in his head even during the night. “It was a very strong confession and it keeps me awake… in pale pink I come across such stories every day at work and outside of it, but the performance of that woman shook me strongly… the helplessness, the indifference of the system, which she experienced firsthand and which robbed her of her son (and soon you will learn, in conversations with tea in hand, how some official just crossed out one psychological service for children and young people from the list. Psychologists who provided it, completely helpless, they have no idea why),” he specified the failure of the state.
Finally, he expressed his feelings in connection with the functioning of our country. “I still haven’t lost the will to live, but sometimes I don’t feel like living in this country… but when I think of this woman again… yes, you have to keep talking, speak loudly when you have to and keep trying to fix what’s wrong in this society, country, “humanity”” he challenged the people. The moderator also decided to draw attention to the civic association IPčko, which provides free psychological help to young people in crisis situations.
“Friends, if your child, teenager, young person needs help, try to contact IPčko… maybe it will be your last hope and maybe your only hope … and maybe at the moment when you need the IP, maybe it will still exist … because those who decide about it know how to appreciate the topic of mental health only when some great tragedy shakes the country and they need to give the impression that they care about people.” he blamed government and constitutional officials.
“I’m grateful to that woman for kicking me. I’m back and I guess you won’t mind if I bother you again with my posts which I only want one thing – to help fix things that have gone wrong, even at the cost of not knowing if it has a wider meaning… maybe it’s enough that you know what I’m writing about and why I’m writing it. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.” he added.
