Program
Attendance
11.00
Starting:
12.00
12.00-12.10
Introduction on behalf of SYPROME: Pavlos Antonopoulos
«The experience of the Center of Child's Mental
Hygiene PEDY with the refugees»:
Despoina Kostopoulou, psychologist
Kalliopi Oikonomou, special educator
12.40-12.55
«Thoughts, experiences, concerns in our
route with refugees and immigrants»
Dimitra Xenaki, phychologist/phychoanalyst and
Maria Ntasiou, pneumologist
12.55-13.10
«Women refugees/immigrants».
Dora Koutsanellou, psychologist
13.10-13.25
«The reflection of the living conditions
in the hosting country on the mental pain of refugees».
Foris Kouniakis, psychiatrist
13.25-13.40
«The need for an inter-cultural approach
of the mental pain of refugees».
Thodoris Megalooikonomou
13.40-14.00
Discussion
14.00-14.15
Break
14.15-15.30
The importance of understanding and equal recognition of the culture of the
“Other”
Coordinator : Litsa Fryda, teacher
14.15-14.30
«Approaches of the “other” and
management of the refugee crisis».
Chrisa Giannopoulou, Dr. in Social Anthropology,
University of Macedonia
14.30-14.45
«Diversity and mental pain»
Nasim Lomani, refugee accommodation and
solidarity space City Plaza
14.45-15.00
«The “culturally Other”, as vulnerable,
threat and object of management. Experiences from practical solidarity projects
to the refugees»
Giorgos Maniatis, refugee accommodation and
solidarity space City Plaza
15.00-15.30
Discussion
Interventions by refugees will take place.
INVITATION
TO AN ONE-DAY WORKSHOP
THE
MENTAL HEALTH OF THE REFUGEES IN THE VICE OF THE AGREEMENT EU-TURKEY AND
FORTRESS-EUROPE
For
as long as the entrapment of refugees in Greece becomes prolonged and more
suffocating, with the perspective and the potential of any way-out becoming,
already, more hermetically sealed, and with the painful experience of such an
irrevocable entrapment being their more and more unbearable daily life, the
impact on their mental health is multiplied and becomes more and more serious.
This
reality includes the predetermined rejection of the applications of asylum, the
stagnation (actually rejection) of the relocation processes, and the walls that
the “civilized” Europe raises even against the processes of family
reunification. And even, the perpetual entrapment of the majority, in
conditions of extreme deprivation, in the hotspots of the islands and the
multiple mainland camps, with the impending threat of the mass deportations to
Turkey, a country considered as “safe third country”.
This
pain is expressed with various psychopathological manifestations, related to,
mainly, the unbearable psycho-pressing, traumatic conditions that they
experience here, which lie on and interact with the multi-traumatic experiences
lived by the refugees, coming from their desperate effort of escaping the war
havoc (but also the economic catastrophe), to their traumatic experiences
before the refuge.
Suicide
attempts are multiplied, as are the cases of severe depressive disorders and
psychotic episodes, while the hospitalizations in psychiatric units, often with
involuntary hospitalization, have increased. The question is if the existing
services (dramatically understaffed and under-functional) have the ability to
confront the problems of the refugees in their particularity and their
complexity. When, beyond the lack of (appropriate) translators for the basic
linguistic communication, there is dramatically no ability of understanding the
culture of the “other” (of its national, social and cultural context), on which
thw mental pain of the subject is registered, takes meaning and is expressed.
We
think that it is urgent to open up the discussion on all these issues, which
are of major importance for the mental health of the refugees.
This
is the reason why we invite all those who, in any way, face, are involved or
are called to provide answers to the painful contradictions that the refugees
experience, the mental health workers, the solidarians, the unions, the social
collectivities, the refugees themselves, and all those who are interested, to
participate and contribute to the one-day workshop that is organized by the
Coordination of trade unions, student unions and other groups for solidarity to
refugees and immigrants.
«The mental health of the refugees – The need
for an inter-cultural approach for the understanding of the mental pain of the
refugee»
Sunday,
25/ June, at 11 am,
Hall of the Association of Greek
Archaeologists (Ermou 134), near the train station of Thiseio
Coordination
of trade unions, student unions and other groups for solidarity to refugees and
immigrants.
