The “P-Support” program is part of a Ministry of Health’s initiative to address the psychosocial effects of Covid-19 by implementing a psychological support program, named “No One Alone in the Pandemic”. The program is designed for Covid-19 patients and their families, the staff of the Covid-19 ICUs, and patients with chronic diseases that are affected by the pandemic outbreak.
The EPAPSY’s Day Center “Franco Basaglia”, coordinated by the Federation of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health Entities “ARGO”, was responsible for the implementation of the “No One Alone in the Pandemic” program in four hospitals of the 1st Health District of Attica: “Sismanoglio” General Hospital of Athens, “Amalia Fleming” General Hospital, “Oi Agioi Anargyroi” General Oncology Hospital of Kifissia, KAT Attica General Hospital.
The objective
The program aims to provide individual and group psychological support and psychiatric monitoring, as well as to conduct specialized webinars, based on each time needs of health professionals during the pandemic. When the program started, focus groups were conducted in order to explore the needs of health professionals and Covid-19 patients.
Intervention Team
The intervention team consists of psychologists and a psychiatrist. The psychologists provide individual counseling and coordinate the health professionals’ psychological support teams in the hospitals of reference, once a week. They are also responsible for the administrative support of the program, the liaison with the hospitals of reference and the scientific evidence of the intervention. The psychiatrist is responsible for the psychiatric monitoring and the prescription needs of the program’s beneficiaries.
The program’s beneficiaries
The program is open to people from the 5th Mental Health District of Attica (Municipalities of Acharnes, Kifissia, Lykovrisi-Pefki, Amaroussio, Neo Irakleio, Marathonas, Oropos, Dionysos), as well as employees of the four hospitals of reference, regardless of their place of residence.
More specifically, the people who can apply for the program are:
- People suffering from Covid-19
- People taking care of Covid-19 patients or have suffered a loss due to Covid-19
- People with disabilities and chronic diseases who have suffered from Covid-19 or have underlying diseases and the pandemic significantly affects their functionality
- People with acute stress reaction due to the pandemic
- Health professionals who present symptoms of stress, psychological strain, burnout, etc.
Contribution to the community
Until today, 120 people have turned to the program and have received personalized services; namely, individual counseling and psychiatric monitoring.
An innovation for the Greek standards is the implementation of face-to-face support groups for health professionals, which have been taking place in the ICUs and clinics of the hospitals of reference (KAT, “Amalia Fleming” and “Sismanoglio”) since March 2021. There is a dynamic number of participants in the teams, coming up to a total of 150 people.
Our goals include the establishment of the health professionals support groups as a permanent provision of individualized services within their employment framework, regardless of the pandemic, the increase of support groups in other hospital departments, the constant interconnection of the hospitals of the northern suburbs of Attica with EPAPSY, via mutual referrals, and new collaborations between legal persons governed by private law and the NHS.
INFO
Tel.: +30 210 8100901 (“Franco Basaglia” Day Center – EPAPSY)
E-mail: covidsupport@epapsy.gr
Facebook: @ypostirizoepapsy Instagram: @ypostirizo_epapsy
