Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative Conference

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI)
Enhancing access, quality, and equity of mental health care for children in Greece

January 25, 2023
Lighthouse, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), Athens, Greece

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI) is a new, five-year program that aims to enhance child and adolescent mental health care capacity and help strengthen the infrastructure for the prevention, assessment, and treatment of mental health struggles faced by children and adolescents across Greece. The initiative is supported and implemented under the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) $750 million-plus global Health Initiative, in partnership with the Child Mind Institute and providers on the front lines of the public health system – in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Health.

During this full-day conference, the CAMHI team is inviting all interested stakeholders to a presentation and discussion on the vision, ongoing work, and future direction of the initiative. The purpose of the event is to introduce the CAMHI and its progress to date to the wider community of child mental health and psychosocial support, enriched with insights from a variety of participants. It will feature keynotes and talks by Dr. Harold Koplewicz, founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute, Greek state representatives, and researchers and practitioners from Greece and internationally.

CONFERENCE AGENDA

To register for the conference, click here.

Members from the CAMHI’s Network, spanning Alexandroupoli, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Athens, and Crete, and from the Child Mind Institute will share preliminary findings of the program's comprehensive research effort to assess the status and needs of Greece’s child and adolescent mental health system. They will describe the unique needs of their communities and how they envision linking their work with the framework of CAMHI in support of the populations they serve. Areas of focus will also include the process and bottom-up approach by which the CAMHI is being developed to ensure proper reach and inclusivity, ongoing work for the creation of evidence-based tools and trainings to increase access to quality mental health care for children and young people, as well as plans to fight stigma and raise awareness.

The conference will moreover highlight the conception, design, and objectives of the CAMHI’s Youth Engagement Scheme (YES) in a discussion with George Moschos, former Ombudsman for Children's Rights, along with Youth Coordinators and Facilitators who are supporting the CAMHI’s Youth Advisory Groups in Athens, Thessaloniki and beyond. Representatives from civil society, healthcare, and research institutions will be invited to share their perspectives and discuss opportunities to better support professionals working in the provision of care to children and adolescents in vulnerable situations.

The event is held in the lead-up to SNF Nostos 2023 which will focus on Mental Health, and take place at the SNFCC on June 21-23, 2023.