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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Mental health institute inaugurated as WHO collaborating centre

Belgrade, 18 November 2009

Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic said today that after 18 years the initiative for making the Serbian Institute for Mental Health a WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Training has met with success.

Milosavljevic said that this is a historic day for the Institute, adding that the Institute gained this status by its good results and now it has taken on greater obligations for the future.

Director of the Institute for Mental Health Dusica Lecic-Tosevski said that this is a great honour but also a huge challenge for Institute employees to make every effort to improve its performance and contribute to the better mental health care of the people.

Doctor Ljubica Vidic of the Institute said that now the Institute has become a regional centre and one of the 35 centres in the world where the programme for providing timely, accessible and suitable mental health care to the people will be implemented.

Vidic said that one of the measures being taken to improve mental health care is education at the local level, through schools, social institutes and the family so that mental problems are recognised and diagnosed at the proper time.

She explained that the Institute’s programmes also concern the reduction of the rate of suicides and suicidal behavior among young people, the prevention of violence and alcoholism and a systemic approach to the families of mentally disturbed individuals through social welfare establishments.

Two years after being nominated, during which the Institute confirmed its credibility and expertise the WHO has designated it as its Collaborating Centre.

The press conference was also attended by WHO's regional advisor for mental health Matthijs Muijen, head of WHO's Serbian Office Dorit Nitzan Kaluski.