Athens Child Mental Health Centre - The Application of Systemic Epistemology in a Public Health Service
(Abstract)

Karagiannis D., Sigalas I.M., Marketos N.,Iakovou L., Antoniou P., Kanakaris S., Kaliva Ch.

Athens Child Mental Health Centre - Greek Social Insurance Institute.

8th World Congress of the International Family Therapy Association, Athens, 1996
(Booth presentation).

The Athens Child Mental Health Centre (C.M.H.C.) belongs to the Social Insurance Institute (S.I.I.), the greatest public Insurance Organization of Greece, and it concerns in Mental Health promotion of children and families. In this presentation, which will be helped by multimedia and video technics, the basic principles, for the application of Family and Group Psychotherapy of Systemic Epistemological origin in C.M.H.C., will be described. Thus C.M.H.C., in order to be able to apply the principles of Living Systems Theory for the diagnosis and treatment of its patients, could not continue to be a Public Service based organizationally to rigid regulations. It had to evolve to an autonomous, flexible Human System. During this process C.M.H.C., through open and sincere communication with its Suprasystem (S.I.I. Administration), managed to clear its boundaries (organizational, administrational, legal, therapeutic) and to undertake the responsibility and the necessary power to accomplish its work. These principles are also applied inside the Centre. Also it is systematically attempted, that the occuring conflicts in the Centre are creatively resolved, leading to synthesis between different opinions and thus allowing the relations between persons and groups to be cooperative - collective, based on values which serve the Living Process.