Conference Agenda

Termination in the context of brief psychotherapy, and its effective management, often presents a challenge for therapists. The aim of this study is to explore how therapists experience and manage the ending of brief psychotherapy within a community mental health setting. Adopting a phenomenological perspective, it examines how therapists experience and ascribe meaning to the issue of ending, as well as the factors that appear to shape their management of this process. The study involved eight (8) mental health professionals, with varying levels of experience, working in community psychiatry. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews lasting 50–60 minutes. Analysis was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a method particularly suited to investigating subjective experience and its meaning-making processes. The findings highlight themes related to therapists’ personal histories of loss, the difficulties and challenges they encounter in their clinical work, and the use of good practices in managing endings. Overall, the study underscores the influence of therapists’ personal experiences on how they approach termination, as well as the importance of reflection, supervision, and personal analysis in sustaining the therapeutic role.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the subjective, lived experiences of service users and their families regarding the onset of psychosis and the pathways in seeking appropriate treatment as well as the barriers they may have encountered during this process. Six in-depth individual interviews were conducted (4 service users and 2 mothers). The study took place between May - October 2023 within a Day Centre for Psychosocial Rehabilitation, located in Athens, Greece. Recruitment was purposeful following the snowball sampling technique. Thematic analysis was utilized for the analysis of data produced from narratives. Duration of Untreated Psychosis (DUP) for participants in the present study ranged between 3-9 years. Six themes emerged. All participants experienced trauma in the family prior to the onset of prodromal symptoms. The second theme refers to the first indications that seem to mobilize the family regarding the early onset of psychosis (emergence of positive symptoms, sleep disorders, academic failure and social withdrawal). The third one refers to individual’s and family’s sensitization and orientation towards psychic life. The role of the therapeutic alliance and stigma also emerges as a critical parameter implicated in early intervention. A prominent theme is the lack of information made available to the wider public regarding the availability and accessibility of services. The present qualitative study identified a number of factors contributing to treatment delay for first episode psychosis, including both intrapsychic and organizational level parameters that are responsible for long DUP in our Greek sample.

Given that juvenile delinquency is a multifaceted mental health issue, community-based prevention interventions for youth at risk should take place in a continuum so that individual, family, school, and social risk and protective factors are simultaneously addressed. A needs assessment study is then necessary to adjust prevention practices to the current state as well as the desired goals through the incorporation of different “voices” of the local community. Along these lines, eighteen focus groups with adolescents and young people, parents, teachers, and stakeholders of the local community were conducted in four municipalities in Northern Athens (Greece) where the program of psychosocial intervention for the prevention of youth violence and delinquency, entitled “It’s Up to You(th)”, is implemented by the Association for Regional Development and Mental Health (EPAPSY). In total, 163 participants were interviewed according to an original interview guide focusing on both risk and protective factors of youth delinquency. Thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews revealed seven main themes with regard to risk and protective factors, including the feeling of instability among young people, the normalization of violence and its internalization as an acceptable way to resolve differences, the lack of trust to (significant) others as well as the desire for a meaningful relationship with adults, the need for common spaces and a culture of dialogue, and the need of inspiration for values and principles. The risk and protective factors resulting from the thematic analysis are also presented comparatively with respect to the different groups and regions participating in the study. Based on this user participation approach, the findings of the needs assessment study shed light on the importance of embracing different community agents and local groups in the co-construction of a selective prevention strategy against youth violence.

In this presentation we outline and reflect upon the process of evaluating three community mental health facilities of EPAPSY through the W.H.O. QualityRights Toolkit. The Quality Rights Toolkit is a structured process for assessing quality of care and human rights in mental health facilities, introduced by the World Health Organisation in 2012. It is designed as a tool for collaborative research, engaging outside experts, facility professionals, service users and carers. More than an assessment tool, it intends to foster continuous development and empowement, whereby all parties involved engage in long-term monitoring and improving the standard of care in the facilities they partake. In the assessment process, data collected through interviews with service users, professionals and carers, systematic observation and archive review is collectively examined by an assessment committee, which formulates a report for each facility. We are currently piloting the use of the Toolkit in a supported accommodation facility, a mobile mental unit and a day centre of the NGO EPAPSY, in view of extending its use in all EPAPSY units, mental health units of collaborating institutions and eventually at national level. The talk will focus more on this innovative process, and the challenges it poses, than on the results regarding the specific facilities.