Public Health and Psychiatry, Athens Psychiatric Conference, 2012

Having studied two years of Community Medicine and Public Health along with my Psychiatry Residency I maintain an interest and passing knowledge in the management and administration of health care systems. It was interesting therefore to hear of the enlightenment of the Swedish government and their willingness to take suggestions from the leading doctors in this field. The Greek experience in areas of limited resources trying to meet the need and address waste and redundancy was especially interesting when an Australian in the audience spoke of his experience 'herding cats' down under. "It's never easy to get people to work together when they're dealing with large groups of people". It's only in war that the capacity for chaos seems to get addressed Here discussion of private and public systems and cost sharing of chronic illness by a society was reviewed with keen insights. I could only admire these remarkable doctors who obviously worked with a lot of different people with competing agendas. It's not easy and a whole lot of work. I'm sorry I didn't get all the names of the people involved down which goes without saying as they are often the 'unsung heroes' in the profession doing a lot of the back room dealings on behalf of patients and clinicians.

Public Health and Psychiatry, Challenges and Opportunities Chaired by Rutz of Sweden.
Person Centred Psychiatry and health promotion Malm.
Person Centred psychiatry, Resource GroupAct approach - Sweden government plans are in line with the psychiatric recommendations so there’s collaboration. Excellent planed care is available today and studies showe functional recovery in regards subjective reports of patients and return to paid work. Accountability essential.
AE. Philalithis presented on Public Health Policy in mental health, reflections on the Greek Experience Samkouri presented Psychiatric Reform in Greece.
Question and answer regarding private services taking money from public system and declining resources overall.