10 October: World Mental Health Day

Every year as every year, October 10 - World Mental Health Day - is here to raise awareness in our societies of the mental health issues that plague people around the world, and to mobilise efforts to support mental health.

WMHD provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people around the world.

The Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative was launched in early 2021, with the exclusive support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF's Global Health Initiative (GHI). It aims to contribute to strengthening the mental health care provided to children and adolescents, as well as to enhance the infrastructure for the prevention, assessment, and treatment of children and adolescents with mental health needs in Greece. The project is developed and implemented by a nationwide network of public sector mental health agencies and professionals, collaborating with the Child Mind Institute in New York City.

For CAMHI, WMHD 2024 is another opportunity to bring to light evidence that has emerged through its research, which is confirmed by our scientific staff in their daily professional practice: According to this research, the most common mental conditions/disorders among children and adolescents in Greece are depression, behavioral problems and bullying. Our research highlights that there is a lack of data at the national level for most mental disorders.

WMHD is another occasion to show the public CAMHI's free information resources, such as the short guides to each mental health difficulty of children and adolescents that are posted on this website, separate for each audience category: Parents, adolescents, educators, and health professionals. But also to offer useful articles, such as the one we are publishing today by our partner, psychologist Katerina Angeli, which deals with the basic emotional needs of the child. Ms Angeli, among other things, answers questions such as: How can we give children the necessary tools for their healthy psychological development and social adaptation? How does meeting emotional needs affect psychological development? And, what are the emotional needs according to each age of the child?

Find and read the article (in Greek), here