The Committee held the press-conference on the mental situation in the country. The conference-exhibition “Better mental health – contemporary models, problems, needs, solutions” organized by the Committee and the Foundation “Global Initiative in Psychology – Tbilisi” was dedicated to consideration of the institutional approach of the system to the current situation in psychiatric system.

The Chair of the Committee, Dimitri KHUNDADZE addressed the guests and spoke about the problems in this sphere and noted that this conference is onset of solution of these problems. “With cooperation with the experts in this sphere, the Committee will develop the project, which will condition elimination of the problems and reforming the system on the legislative level”, - he noted.

The Public Defender, Ucha NANUAHSVILI introduced the current situation in mental clinics and the report of the monitoring. According to him, the special prevention group examined 12 mental institutions in the country and made the separate reports. “The group members examined the infrastructure of the institutions, had the confidential interviews with the patients, met with the representatives of the direction, medical personnel and social servants”, - he stated. According to him, the office of Public Defender has prepared the recommendations to the Ministry of Health Care and expressed his hope that the employees of the two agencies will have the productive cooperation.

The Deputy-Minister of Health Care and Social Issues, Marian JASHI thanked the organizers for the conference and noted that such meetings are the best solution of the problems. She spoke about the report by the Public Defender and attached her attention to the systemic violations, detected with monitoring. “We have studied every detail by paragraphs in the Ministry, which revealed necessity of timely conduct of the events. The problem is absence of common policy”, - she noted.

The Director of the Foundation “Global Initiative in Psychiatry – Tbilisi”, Nino MAKHASHVILI introduced the illustrated presentation. According to her, one of the main slogans of the foundation is “There is no health without mental health”. According to her, the world health organization reports that mental disorder is entailed with poverty, unemployment and isolation from social life.

She introduced the international directions of mental health care, standards and hospital services. She also spoke about the Georgia model and attached her attention to necessity to increase funding for mental health programs.

The participants of the conference heard the speeches on hospital services in mental health care sphere, future profile of mental clinics, treatment methods for mental patients, legislative frame and international experience.