INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS
History – Identity
The non-profit scientific organization Institute of Mental Health for Children and Adults (I.M.H.C.A.) was founded in Athens in 1996 and operates a Day Center for children, adolescents and adults with mental disorders, under license of the Mental Health Directorate, Ministry of Health. The Institute’s base is in Athens, within the municipality of Kallithea, and the multidisciplinary center of Attica (Departments: Adults, Children and Adolescents, Home-Based Psychiatric Treatment, Socialization Program) provides services to the community for more than fifteen consecutive years, based on the principles and methodology of social and community psychiatry. The Institute, having a major impact on the expansion and consolidation of the Psychiatric Reform Movement in the Greek provinces, operated periodically specialized centers, based on the needs and specificities of each region, in the prefectures of Fokida, Fthiotida, Xanthi, Evros and Rodopi.
The First Interview
The first interview is a key process, because on it depends whether a therapeutic relationship will be established and, to some extent, of what kind and quality this relationship may be. […] S. Nacht, one of the major French psychoanalysts, stated that the patient does not care so much for what we say, but for what we are. […] During the interview we must not forget that the person who is before us is our fellow human, with dignity and rights. So, the therapist - patient relationship must be a relationship of parity.