The sharp rise in domestic violence incidents seen today is, to a large extent, a result of the pandemic and increased coexistence at home. The World Health Organization reports on 60% increase in domestic violence pan-European, with the victims being mostly women and children. In most cases, the perpetrators belong to the minor’s immediate environment.

He mentioned the above the Deputy Minister of Health (responsible for Mental Health issues) in a written greeting he sent to the scientific conference on: “Child Abuse: Practical knowledge for its detection & management”, organized by the 3rd Ministry of Health at the Papageorgiou hospital.

For his part, the Minister of Health Thanos Pleurisin his online greeting, pointed out that the Ministry of Health, in terms of issues related to a series of abusive behaviors towards the child, focuses on the one hand on the early diagnosis of these pathologies, on the other hand on supporting the mental health of the child who has suffered abuse behavior.

“When we talk about child abuse, we must not forget that we are currently dealing with two different processes. It is the abusive behavior that a child may suffer in his family environment or by familiar persons. But there has also been an increase in abusive behavior within the children’s and adults’ spaces themselves, so automatically in this direction there should be horizontal actions by ministries. The National Action Plan for the protection of the child has already been submitted and discussed in the Parliament”, noted Mr. Pleuris and added that the Ministry of Health, based on this plan, is trying to develop all these actions to 100%. Finally, he noted that: “When we talk about protecting children, we are actually talking about protecting the future of our country.”

In order to detect the perpetrators of child abuse, as mentioned by Ms. Rapti, the Greek Police has 6 offices in police stations with 3000 trained police officers, 5 offices for the protection of minors and 73 special services dealing with domestic violence.

Mrs. Rapti noted that in terms of dealing with the perpetrators penalties have been tightened provided for in the Criminal Code and related with child abuse, that the only penalty for homicide is life imprisonment, while the penalties have also become heavier for the various forms of bodily harm.

He also added that in the area of ​​victim support, the 24-hour National Telephone Line for Psychosocial Support 10306 operates – to date, it has received more than 550,000 calls, of which 14,000 concern psychological support for families and children – and the 24-hour SOS Line 15900, which provides assistance and guidance on responding to incidents of violence.

“We are developing special structures in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, such as “The Children’s House” to collect deposits from minors with less psychological stress. We provide a specialist child psychologist or child psychiatrist to examine children through play. In the Ministry of Health, we have included in the Recovery Fund the financing of 106 new mental health structures throughout the territory. Already 56 of them have been licensed and will soon be operational. From these, two Day Centers specialized in the field of holistic family support and two Centers for the support of abused children are created. At the same time, 11 day centers of a general type are being created throughout the country – six for adults and five for children and teenagers – the targeting of which includes the treatment of domestic violence”, Mrs. Rapti pointed out, stressing at the same time that “beyond measures and policies, everyone from us he assumes his own share of responsibility towards the children”.

In her brief greeting, the Deputy Minister of Health, Mina Gaga mentioned that child abuse has always existed to some extent and that with the pandemic we have seen it multiply. “We have too many children, maybe home confinement, financial problems, various problems led to much more violent behavior and so we saw much more child abuse, just as we generally saw more abuse and psychiatric and psychological problems as a result of the pandemic. So it is very important that we all be aware, so that we can understand which children are the ones who may have such a problem and be able to help both children and their families or intervene where needed, either with help or with restrictive measures,” Ms. Gaga added.

At the conference, among others, greetings were addressed by the General Secretary of Public Health Irini Agapidakis, the General Secretary of Primary Health Marios Themistokleous and the regional governor of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostas.