The Psychosocial support program for children and families of vulnerable social groups in Andros has been implemented since 2005 by the NE Cyclades Mobile Mental Health Unit of EPAPSY and is sponsored by the foundation of Dimitrios and Lilika Moraitis.
Program objectives
The main objective of the program is to provide important psychosocial support services to the local community, such as:
- Child psychiatric assessment and monitoring services for children and adolescents of vulnerable social groups, experiencing behavioral and emotional difficulties
- Counseling services for parents with psychosocial difficulties
- Family therapy within the framework of the specialized Family Clinic set up for this purpose
- Couple and family therapy sessions
Key priority of the project is also the close cooperation with the educational community, aiming at effective interventions addressed to children experiencing psychosocial difficulties in school, as well as effective networking and cooperation with local actors.
Beneficiaries
The program serves 100-150 children and parents per year, with an average of 750 sessions. The services provided are addresses to children and families of vulnerable social groups, such as single-parent families, parents, or children with severe psychosocial or physical problems, families of low socio-economic status and immigrants. The personal experience of a beneficiary of the program strongly highlights the necessity of the action:
“I have a name, like all of us, an identity. A few years ago, another name was added to my name; the name of a disease. (…) I live in a small community, where everyone knows me. People are afraid of difference. We are marginalized and we need to be strong. We went through the stage of shame, the fear of rejection. But stigma and prejudice are present, and we see that every day. (…) I attended the seminar on the rights of people with disabilities; we set up the club to help ourselves, help and support people who live isolated, afraid… Life is beautiful! And we all appreciate this gift.”
Scientific team
The program is carried out in the field by an interdisciplinary team consisting of a child psychiatrist, a special educator, and a psychologist, who visit Andros twice a month, providing child psychiatric diagnosis and monitoring, parent counseling and family therapy. At the same time, a specialized clinical psychologist, who is in charge of the Family Clinic of the Eginition Hospital, provides clinical supervision to families using psychosocial care services within the framework of the Andros Family Clinic. Since December 2021, supervision of special educators has been provided, which from 2022 is given on a regular basis.
The scientific supervisor of the program is the Professor of Social Psychiatry, founder and Scientific Director of EPAPSY, Stelios Stylianidis.
For more information about the program, contact the NE Cyclades Mobile Mental Health Units of EPAPPSY at +30 210 8068302.
