2024-03-17 00:31:25
Unanimously, the Board of Directors of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece proceeded to issue a resolution on the Prevention Centers, following a proposal by the “Self-Governing Now” faction of Haris Doukas and an initiative by the mayor of Ioannina, Thomas Bega.
Mr. Begas had sought to discuss the specific issue in the Board of Directors. of KEDE and had taken the initiative to issue a resolution after meetings with workers at the Prevention Center “Schedia” and KETHEA Epirus, as recently information about the draft law of the Ministry of Health, entitled “Completion of the psychiatric reform “, which includes regulations that effectively leave the Prevention Centers without any legislative clause and without funding.
In the resolution of the KEDE it is emphasized that the Prevention Centers carry out a work of utmost importance in the matter of information-prevention of addictions, they have supported hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens (parents, teachers, students, young people, etc.), they often even constitute, especially in small communities , the only mental health service that our citizen will turn to. The scientific programs they design and implement are based on the toolbox of the European Quality Standards (EUS) in the field of prevention. Their work has been cited as exemplary and innovative by the Council of Europe and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs. Their actions are shaped by the local needs of their citizens/beneficiaries.
“As representatives of Local Government, we have a duty to protect structures that serve the needs of our citizens. We express our support to the workers of the Prevention Centers. We seek a dialogue from scratch with the leadership of the Ministry of Health regarding the institutional operation of the Prevention Centers, their permanent and adequate funding from the state, their local operation and their participatory management, but also the continuation of the “philosophy” of Prevention in Community, which gave pioneering results for our country at a pan-European level. We ask that approved bodies for prevention in the field of mental health and addictions remain, that the necessary recruitments be made, in order to fill the many vacant staff positions and that Prevention Centers be created where they do not exist”, the resolution concludes.