The Child and Adolescent’s Center-CAC- is a non-governmental, civil non-profit organisation, providing mental health services to children, adolescents , adults and families for the last 25 years, founded in the island of Chios, Greece, in 1996, with the aim to provide high quality mental health services to the local community .
The mandate and activities of the Child and Adolescent’s Center rise from the principles of social and community based psychiatry: prevention, early diagnosis, treatment/rehabilitation /case management, continuity of care, associated with scientific research, training , health and community education programs and interventions ,while promoting social inclusion and elimination of the stigma related to mental disorders in the community.
The Centre actually counts a total of 6 clinical departments in Chios and in Athens metropolitan region , the department for Scientific documentation and education and the administration department, including a total of 106 staff members in its human resources.
The Child and Adolescent’s Center has been granted the status of certified Institution of Social Care Services since 2005, also included in the National Register of Greek and Foreign Non-Governmental Organisations, active in the field of international protection, immigration and social inclusion, since 2017.
During its 25 years’ continuous functioning and ongoing development , the Centre has provided service to a total of more than 8.500 individual users of all ages and families . In addition, since 2015, more than 1000 mental health and education professionals have participated in our continuous education training courses. Overall, more than 60% of the participants and almost 80% of the training hours referred to courses focusing to ASD.
The CAC bears a long experience with service provision to autistic individuals: The Day Center in Athens provides service to adolescents & young adults 15-22 years of age with ASD of medium & low functionality since 2008. The Day Centre is integrated in the ““Psychargos ogramme, aiming at the psychiatric reform and deinstitutionalisation in Greece, funded and supervised by the Ministry of Health. Active family support, community education & developing a network of volunteers, are also included in the services provided .
Shorter duration services are being provided for the last 25 years by the Department for Children & Adolescents in Chios, addressing individuals aged 2-18 with a larger spectrum of childhood mental & developmental disorders, including ASD. Last but not least, the Specialised Centre for Autism Diagnosis & Treatment “Ilianthos” in Athens provides services, since 2013, exclusively to users with ASD: individual counselling , psycho-education, group programs and community based programmes, rehabilitation and recreational activities, aiming at developing social skills, fighting stigma & promoting the wellbeing of our users & their families.
For more information, please visit our website at: https://kpechios.gr/en/