Lesvos: A Mental Health Intervention for Children and Adolescents in the Remote Western Region

As part of its collaboration with the Mobile Medical Units (MMU) of the NGO Regeneration & Progress, which began in the fall of 2025, the Children & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI) visited villages in Western Lesvos from March 18 to 22, 2026.

The visit centered on the Health Center in Antissa, to strengthen prevention, early identification, and mental health support for children and adolescents in the area. CAMHI was represented by its member, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist Efi Kapsimalli.

Lesvos is the third largest island in Greece after Crete and Evia, marked by sharp contrasts between the urban center of Mytilini and the rural communities of the interior and coastline. Western Lesvos — with villages such as Antissa, Sigri, Chidira, Mesotopos, and Eressos — is characterized by a scattered population, long distances from specialized services, and a strong dependence on the primary sector. Its residents are predominantly farmers and livestock breeders, with all that this implies for the community's vulnerability to external crises. The timing of the visit coincided with the spread of foot-and-mouth disease among the island's livestock, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety that permeated conversations in every community.

During the visit, six meetings took place across different communities in Western Lesvos. Primary and secondary school teachers from the areas of Agra, Eressos, Mesotopos, Sigri, Chidira, and Antissa were introduced to CAMHI's program and its training course on mental health literacy. The medical and nursing staff of the Antissa Health Center, as well as physicians from the Kalloni Health Center who cover on-call shifts in the area, were briefed on the screening training program for child and adolescent mental health problems, with notably strong interest expressed.

In Chidira, following the briefing, an open discussion took place with mothers on topics that concern them: screen use, communication with their teenage children, and boundary-setting. The foot-and-mouth disease currently affecting livestock across the island prompted a deeper conversation around loss and grief, psychological resilience, self-care and acceptance, as well as social cohesion and solidarity as protective factors for mental health.

Field discussions brought to light structural challenges affecting access to mental health services in the area: delays in intervention by the relevant services due to high caseloads, the absence of child and adolescent psychiatry coverage, the gradual weakening of primary care structures, and pressures from declining birth rates and internal migration that continue to erode local communities.

The response from the local community was warm and meaningful. In communities where distances are great and resources are limited, mental health care rests above all on relationships of trust and bonds of solidarity. Being present in the field allows for a deeper understanding of real needs, strengthens the connection between health and education, and lays the groundwork for more sustained forms of support in the future.

The joint presence of CAMHI and the Mobile Medical Units marks one more step toward more equitable access to mental health prevention and care for children and adolescents, regardless of where they live.

• CAMHI's program is developed and implemented by a nationwide network of public-sector mental health organizations and professionals, in collaboration with the Child Mind Institute (New York) and with the support of the Ministry of Health. The Children & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative is supported exclusively by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of the SNF's Global Health Initiative (GHI).
  
  
• The Mobile Medical Units (MMU) are an initiative undertaken by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in collaboration with the Health Units S.A. (AEMY S.A.), within the framework of the National Primary Health Care Program, implemented by the NGO Regeneration & Progress under the scientific supervision of the 1st Orthopedic Clinic of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.