Mental health services to undergo radical overhaul

In an effort to complete ongoing reforms to mental health services and rectify mistakes made along the way, the Health Ministry is preparing a draft law, which, according to Deputy Minister Dimitris Vartzopoulos, aims “to radically restructure the system of organization and administration of mental health services.” Currently almost all psychiatric clinics at large hospitals are overcrowded. 

The draft law provides for the creation of a national network of mental health services, which will be structured into regional networks of mental health services, which in turn will be managed by a deputy governor of the respective health region responsible for mental health issues. These networks will include, as decentralized units, psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric departments of general hospitals, mental health centers and mobile units.

Health Ministry sources say a key flaw in the current institutional framework is that it made no provision for young chronic patients.