This document discusses community mental health promotion through outreach units and sensitization. It describes a model using mobile psychiatric units to conduct community psychoeducation activities aimed at combating stigma, promoting mental health, and facilitating deinstitutionalization. The goals are to change attitudes towards mental illness, promote early intervention and prevention, and support continued care during life transitions. Activities include public talks, networking, and participation of those with mental health problems to promote inclusion and understanding. Evaluation found this approach helps integration, avoids crises, and supports education continuity for youth with special needs.

1. SOCIAL PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES :
OUTREACH UNITS AND MENTAL HEALTH
PROMOTION
A. Frangouli : Sectionalised Community Mental Health Promotion
Continuation of care and psychotherapy of adolescents
in transition to adulthood : Concerted function of child
Guidance Clinics and Community Health Care
4th
European Congress of the International
Neuropsychiatric Association :
“Overlap and Integration in Neuropsyciatry”
The First Interdisciplinary Congress
“Psychiatry and Related Sciences”
Athens, November 29 – December 2, 2012

2. EVROS
RODOPI
ATTIKI
FTHIOTIDA
FOKIDA

3. Mobile
Psychiatric
Unit
1. Community
Psychoeducation
Combating Stigma
& Social Exclusion
2. Crisis Intervention
3. Meeting people where
they live
4. Mental Health in
Youth & Education
5. Deinstitutionalisation
6. Mental Health in
Workplace Settings
CREATION OF LOCAL NETWORK
The Mobile Psychiatric Units Model

4. Community Sensitization –
Psycho-education
Working Definition
Community Sensitization – Psycho-education :
• Is the work that is done with the population in
order to bring a change in their attitudes
towards mental illness or other disabilities
• Is the understanding of mental health promotion
and early intervention
• Is the participation of the therapeutic team as
an organization or an individual person in the
everyday life of the community.

5. The target-group
of community sensitization
• Community Sensitisation – Psychoeducation
concerns a large population group, that
extends from the psychiatric services user’s
immediate environment (e.g. therapists,
family, neighbourhood, local shops etc) on the
one hand, to the wider population and the
official authorities on a local as well as a
national level (e.g. schools, Municipalities, the
Church, the Police, employers, scientific
community etc), on the other hand.
• We have to adapt our approaches & methods
according to each target group of the
population.

6. The basic aims of community
sensitization
To bring a change in the community’s
attitudes towards mental illness or other
disabilities & so to facilitate the inclusion
of PwD (People with Disabilities) or IwPP
(Individuals with Psychosocial Problems)
To promote mental health, to ensure the
prevention of mental health problems and
to act on early intervention

7. Characteristics
of Community Sensitization-
Psychoeducation
• The stability of the therapeutic team in the
catchment area
• The continuous training and supervision offered to the
therapists, who need to have enthusiasm and
experience
• The understanding and respect of the customs,
traditions, values and believes of the community
• The respect and faith in the equal rights and
responsibilities of people with psychosocial problems
or intellectual disabilities
• The participation of people with mental health
problems or intellectual disabilities at the Community
Sensitization activities
• The participation at local community activities
organized by other agencies and institutions

8. Most important issue:
• The participation of people with mental
health problems or intellectual disabilities –
whenever possible- at the Community
Sensitisation – Psychoeducation activities,
renders these more successful and aids the
combating of the fear and stigma attached to
mental illness or other disabilities. It also
spreads the message more effectively for the
promotion of Mental Health, equal rights and
social solidarity.

9. The work done with the families
• We have to offer a stable support and psycho-
education to the families, in order to help them
to understand better the needs of the family
member who suffers from psychosocial
problems, to recognize the early signs of a
relapse and know what to do, to keep the balance
between family, support self autonomy. We have
to work with the immediate social environment of
the individual with mental health problems
• We have to work together with families’ and
users’ associations and ensure that their “voice”
reaches the policy/decision making centers

10. Working Together…
The whole
Community
Individuals with Mental
Health Problems
Carers
(Families,
Friends,
Relatives, Siblings,
Employers…)
SSP&MH
(staff/volunteers/
networking with
other organizations)

11. Activities & Methodology
of Community Sensitization – Psychoeducation (1)
• Bring the local community (e.g. neighbourhood, shops,
coffee places etc) into contact (in every day life
activities) with individuals with mental health
problems or intellectual disabilities and demystify
mental illness.
• Contact with possible employers. To give a realistic
view of skills/potentials/difficulties. To collaborate
with the employer, in order to support PwD or IwPP to
maintain their job.

12. Activities & Methodology
of Community Sensitization – Psychoeducation (2)
• Public speaking, Community Forum, Focus Groups –
Seminars at Schools (students, parents, teachers,
professors).
• Psycho-Education meetings with the official
authorities (eg. Local government - Mayor, employees
at the local services), the Police, the Judiciary, the
Church etc.)
• Both aiming at:
Mental Health Promotion/Prevention/ Early
Intervention
Promoting a social inclusion attitude/fighting
stigma

13. Activities & Methodology of Community
Sensitization – Psychoeducation (3)
• Networking: Contact with other
organisations, social solidarity networks,
NGOs, Cultural Societies, as well as local
Family or Users’ Networks.
• Creation of alliances, to support each
other’s actions, to use all the
complementary resources available and to
co-organise special sensitization events

14. Activities & Methodology of
Community Sensitization – Psychoeducation (4)
• Contact with Volunteers. Volunteers can:
 support individuals with mental health problems or
intellectual disabilities
 become advocates of the message that individuals
with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities
are equal citizens.
• Participation in scientific conferences: disseminating
the effectiveness of community sensitization & Social
Psychiatry

15. Activities & Methodology
of Community Sensitization – Psychoeducation (5)
• Contact with journalists in order to fight the stigma &
to show people a realistic image of PwD or Individuals
with Mental Health problems.
• Distribution of Printed and other electronic Material
in each event that the organisation participates
We make the Community Sensitization an inseparable
part of our every day work.
20% of our work-load is offered to community
sensitization
projects

16. Results of Community
Sensitization – Psychoeducation (1)
• It leads to a change in the prejudism towards
mental illness and intellectual disabilities and
combats the stigma attached to these.
• It leads to the effective integration (equal
social inclusion) of people with mental health
problems and intellectual disabilities in the
community.

17. Results of Community
Sensitization – Psychoeducation (2)
• It is a necessary condition for prevention and early
intervention; through education of the population and of
the key personalities of the community we serve the aim
of Mental Health Promotion.
• It helps to avoid the onset of a crisis, as well as
involuntary admissions to psychiatric hospitals; the
sensitized environment of a PwD or Individuals with
Mental Health problems knows how to recognize the
early symptoms and how to help him/herself.

18. Let me bring an example of how we work on the primary
prevention level with adolescents :
• Obligatory education in Greece is 9 years in duration
- Six years elementary and 3 years high school
education. In elementary school, special education
provisions (special or parallel classes, individual
teaching…) were and are available for students
needing it. But the 3years of high school these
special provisions for the students were not planned,
not available. So, students who were thoroughly
supported at elementary school, were in high risk of
social, educational, family problems because they
were abandoning high school education. Consequently,
the Mobile Psychiatric Unit, discussing it with the
key personalities of the region, the parents and the
students, created the adolescents department.

19. • It started 1988 and ended in 2000, with no separate budget.
Periodically, a municipality could give some subside to support
the program. It was functioning on a daily basis by a teacher,
social worker and psychologists. Speech and language therapy
was offered individually. The program was, continuation of
education (grammar, syntax, maths, written language,
history), training of social skills, cognitive skills, individual
and group empowerment, pre-vocational training, employment
in the open market. It as a successful program, a small book
was published at the end. The department closed because,
the public education system provides the service ever since.

20. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Frangouli A. (2008), Mobile Psychiatric Unit at the Prefecture of Fokida:
Psychosocial Intervention in the Community, Papazisis Publishing House:Athens.
• Jones J., Lowe T. (2003). The education and training needs of qualified
mental health nurses working in acute adult mental health services. Nurse
Education Today, 23(8): 610-9.
• Joulis Α. and Frangouli Α. (1994), “Community Sensitisation in Thrace for the
participation of the population in the mental health services”, Psychiatric
Notebooks, No. 44.
• McCulloch A. (1998), “Public Education in England” in Presenting Mental Illness,
Mental Health Promotion in Primary Care, ed. R. Jenkins & T. Badirham, England,
Ustun.
• Monitoring and Support Unit for the “Psychargos II Program “ (MSU) (2005)
[1], “Methodological Guide for the Mobilization of Volunteers in mental Health”,
Athens.
• Sakellaropoulos P. et Coll. (2003), “Desinstitulization and its relation with
Primary Care”, Papazisis Publishing House:Athens.
• Sakellaropoulos P. et Coll. (2010), “The foundation stone of Psychiatry is the
emotional bond between the therapist and the patient”, Papazisis Publishing
House:Athens.
• WHO-WAPR (2007). Ψυχοκοινωνική Αποκατάσταση: Συναινετική Διακήρυξη, ελλ.
μετάφραση με ευθύνη του ελλ. κλάδου της WAPR, σ.σ. 2-3. Προσβάσιμο στο:
http://www.msu.gr/article.asp?actmen=Layer3&menuID=28
•
[1] The Psychargos Program was created as part of the National Psychiatric
Reform Program.