CAMHI's Athens hub inaugurated at Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital
Mental health challenges are widespread among children and adolescents in Greece, according to a recent report by the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI), with 39% of parents who participated in the survey reporting that their child exhibits relevant symptoms. At this critical juncture, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) supported the complete renovation of a building at Agia Sophia Children's Hospital in Athens to house the local hub of CAMHI's Referral Network. The Athens hub is part of a nationwide effort encompassing four other hubs that have been established within public child psychiatric hubs in Alexandroupoli, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, and Crete through CAMHI, which is exclusively supported by SNF as part of the its Global Health Initiative (GHI).All five hubs operate as part of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative, which is also exclusively supported by the SNF as part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI). and has the mission to strengthen the care provided and the infrastructure for child and adolescent mental health in the country. The program’s mission is to help enhance mental health care capacity and strengthen mental health infrastructure for children and adolescents in Greece, in partnership with the Greek state and in collaboration with the Child Mind Institute in New York.
CAMHI’s new Athens hub was inaugurated on Friday, January 10. In attendance at the event were Minister of Health Adonis Georgiades, Agia Sophia Children's Hospital Director Emmanuel Papasavvas, National and Kapodistrian Hospital Rector Gerasimos Siasos, SNF Chief Financial Officer Christina Lampropoulou, and Katerina Papanikolaou, who is Professor of Child Psychiatry at the National University of Athens Medical School, Director of the University Child Psychiatry Clinic at Agia Sophia, and Head of the Athens CAMHI hub. Ms Lambropoulou said: “This opening coincides with the start of the new year, and like any new beginning, it is accompanied by optimism—optimism that is deeply rooted in realism—that against these disconcerting research findings and a grim prognosis for youth mental health, there stands a bulwark like this and a group of committed health professionals like those of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative.”
