Cyprus Psychiatry

• Nicosia District

1. Athalassa Cyprus Psychiatric Hospital. This is the only sizable Psychiatric hospital in Cyprus, with 220 patients with low bed occupancy down from 700 patients In 1977 . Until recently, it accepted patients only under court order. With the new mental health legislation, voluntary patients are admitted also. There are 14 wards, many of them recently refurbished. Two of them are psychogeriatric, two are for the mentally retarded (mentally retarded people are no longer admitted to this hospital), one medical ward, one acute admissions (mixed), three wards for rehabilitation and another two for chronic psychotic patients.
2. Psychiatric unit of Nicosia General Hospital. The building is within the grounds of the hospital. It has 24 beds. All patients are admitted voluntarily. It has a full multidisciplinary team, a liaison service with the rest of the hospital, and a busy outpatient department, where every day there are two Cyprus psychiatry doctors and one psychologist in attendance plus other paramedical services. There were 12 436 visits during 1997, compared to 15 600 in 1990. Further, there were 444 admissions compared to 485 in 1990.
3. Other outpatient Cyprus clinics in Nicosia. Thanks to the decentralization policy, there are now three such clinics, which handled 4300 visits in 1997.
4. Detoxification and rehabilitation Cyprus center. This is based in Nicosia General Hospital and is used to treat drug and alcohol addictions. The center has 10 beds and a full multidisciplinary team. In 1997, 74 patients were treated there.
5. Information and counseling Cyprus center. In 1998, an information and counseling center for young drug addicts was established in downtown Nicosia, away from the biomedical model. It aims to do primary and secondary preventive interventions, in cooperation with other interested agencies.
6. Child psychiatric department in Makarios Cyprus Hospital. This provides assessments, diagnosis, family interventions, psychotherapy and liaison with the paediatrics department. There is a multidisciplinary team comprising one child psychiatrist, one psychologist, four psychiatrist nurses and two part-time speech therapists.
7. Cyprus Community psychiatric nursing. There is a community psychiatric nursing center in downtown Nicosia. There are 27 community psychiatric nurses looking after 944 patients. They do home visits, assessment, crisis intervention and so forth, and are supervised by a psychiatrist and their respected multidisciplinary team.
8. Cyprus Day center. A full multidisciplinary team offers services mainly to patients discharged from the Cyprus Psychiatric  Hospital. It is run conjointly with a nongovernmental organization.
9. Cyprus Group home. This offers residence for up to four patients halfway towards autonomy.
10. Two Cyprus hostels for discharged patients have started funtioning since 1999 in Nicosia

• Limassol district

1. Psychiatric unit in Limassol General Hospital. This has 24 beds with similar functions to its Nicosia counterpart. The outpatient center is located elsewhere. There were 419 admissions in 1997 compared to 318 in 1990.
2. Detoxification Cyprus center. Five beds are available within this clinic with functions similar to the one in Nicosia.
3. Outpatient Cyprus center. It is located downtown within the premises of the renovated old Limassol Hospital. Everyday except Tuesday, two psychiatrists and one psychologist examine patients. There were 15 877 visits in 1997 compared to 11 851 in 1990. A community psychiatric nursing center is located within the same building. There were seven community psychiatric nurses looking after 193 patients in 1998.
4. Cyprus Day center. This is run jointly with a nongovernmental organization on similar lines with the one in Nicosia.
5. A Cyprus hostel for discharged patients is functioning in Limassol.

• Larnaca and Famagusta

1. Cyprus psychiatric Center. This is located in the old General Hospital, has a busy outpatient department and works jointly with nongovernmental organizations in helping drug addicts with various programs on an outpatient basis. The Cyprus psychiatric center runs a day center similar to those in Nicosia and Limassol. There are two psychiatry doctors and one part-time clinical psychologist in Larnaca. A psychiatry doctor from the Center pays a weekly visit to the outpatient clinic in Paralimni, the main township of the Famagusta district. There were 7989 visits in Larnaca in 1997 compared to 8593 in 1990. In Paralimni, the figures were 1294 and 1428, respectively. Seven community psychiatric nurses look after 200 patients.

• Paphos

1. There is a Cyprus multidisciplinary team with one psychiatry doctor which was enriched by the appointment of a part-time psychiatry doctor and psychiatrist. The team is located in the new Paphos General Hospital. They had 4550 visits compared to 6396 in 1990. Four community psychiatric nurses look after 113 patients. Reform of psychiatric health services in Cyprus is in progress.