Development Of A Multilevel - Multifocal Training Program

BY THE ATHENS CHILD MENTAL HEALTH CENTER
OF THE HELLENIC SOCIAL INSURANCE INSTITUTE

Presented here is a broad summary of the training program, applied by the Athens Child Mental Health Center (A.C.M.H.C.) of the Hellenic Social Insurance Institute (IKA). A group of specialists of the Center, is responsible for the organization and coordination of the program, while many experts of the Center, suitably qualified by IKA, work as trainers. The training program is based on the principles of the Dialectic – Systemic Approach, which has been developed and teached by George and Vasw Vasileiou in the Athenian Institute of Antrhopos (AIA). It considers the human being as a bio-psycho-social entity fully interacting with its context. Based on this approach we consider every child as a person being in a biopsychobsocial evolutionary process. So, we are not limited to temporary symptom treatment, but we try to facilitate this evolutionary process, utilizing every available therapeutic or preventive method. We also know that the survival and development of every child depends on its integration into a suitable family context, which becomes its primary social group. The development of the child is directly affected by the functional level of its family. So we believe that, in order to ensure the unproblematic psychosocial development of a child, we have to promote in every way the functionality of its family.

The training program of A.C.M.H.C. is developed on four levels:

• 1. Clinical training of students. Its main goals are:
  • The assignment of responsible work. Each student undertakes responsible work, depending on the level of its education and personal development, with appropriate supervision.
  • The undertaking of personal responsibility by each student for his – her training. We try to inspire our students to participate actively in their training process, to develop collaboration, creativity and negotiating capacities and, especially, to cultivate enthusiasm for the learning process, in which they participate.
  • The development of a grouping process between the trainees.
  The students’ training includes personal work, as well as participation to specially designed group activities, aiming to students’ accustoming with the Center’s working principles, and to the development of familiarity and co-operation between them.
• Continuous education of the Center’s scientific personnel. This activity contributes to the continuous scientific training of the mental health specialists of the Center, so that they will be able to care for the complex needs of the families, who seek help from our Center, as well as to respond to their complex training duties. It covers the recent developments of the child mental health and the family dynamics.
• Providing supervision to the scientific personnel. It is conducted by the most experienced specialists, or by the scientific director of the Center.
• Conducting of training programs to IKA’s personnel. This activity is a kind of “intervention to our working community”. We conduct training programs for IKA’s administrative or health personnel all over Greece. For the conduction of those programs we follow the principles of experiential training, which include:
  • a) Active participation of the trainees in the educational activities, who participate in appropriately designated exercises, to refer to personal feelings and experiences, and also to discuss in small groups and bring their questions and conclusions to the plenary sessions. In that way the trainees learn:
    • By acting;
    • through their emotional reactions;
    • utilizing the transaction among the members of the small group;
    • by role-playing.
  • Development of grouping process among the trainees, which makes it easier for them to participate actively to the experiential exercises of the seminar. The trainers also had to develop teamwork between them, in order to become a model of cooperative work for the trainees.
  • Actualization of feedback by the trainees during the program. We prepare a teaching program for each seminar, but we modify it, during the training process, according to the trainees’ needs. To identify those needs, we utilize both attitudes and questions submitted individually or, mainly, within small groups, and also we use daily analysis of their grouping process, which comes through the study of their emotional interactions and the communicational concepts (verbal and extraverbal) between them. So we try to ensure that the content and flow of each program meets continuously the needs of the trainees.

As a conclusion we can mention that the A.C.M.H.C.’s training program has acquired a multilevel – multifocal character, with a manifold participation of the Center’s personnel in it.

Note: An extensive presentation of this work can be found in the following article (only in Greek):
Sigalas I.M., Trakaki Th., Alifragi M., Karagiannis D.: Ανάπτυξη ενός πολυεπίπεδου – πολυεστιακού εκπαιδευτικού προγράμματος. Μετάλογος 22/2012, σελ. 65 – 77.