The 1st ANASA Day Centre represents the first fighting effort to provide specialised health care services for individuals suffering from Eating Disorders.

The Day Centre, which opened on October 10, 2008, offers diagnosis, treatment and counselling services to both the sufferers and families, via a multidisciplinary team of health professionals. No financial contribution is required on behalf of the patients. The Centre’s clinical team is composed of a psychiatrist, a child psychologist, a psychologist, a general practitioner, a dietician and an occupational therapist.

The Day Centre if funded for the first 12 months by the European Social Fund (80%) and the Greek Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (20%) and passed that period the Day Centre is integrated within the National Budget for Health while it is also supported by funds of ANASA non-profit corporation.

The architectural study and construction of the 1st ANASA Day Centre are sponsored by KAROUZOS CONSTRUCTION.

Welcome Note from the Head of the Scientific Team of ANASA Day Centre

Eating disorders represent a particularly wide clinical field in modern psychiatry. The 1st ANASA Day Centre embraces the principles of Social Psychiatry and Community Care, as it aims to form a specialized, yet integrated model of treatment and support for individuals suffering from Eating Disorders and their families.

The Day Centre is run as a multidisciplinary day care unit which offers multidimensional treatment services to patients with Eating Disorders, primarily as an outpatient unit, with a view to providing diagnosis and treatment, promoting social integration (or re-integration) and functional autonomy of its members, as well as offering support services to family members.

The requirements that must be met for the patient’s participation in the therapeutic activities of ANASA Day Centre have as follows:

• The patient must be diagnosed with an Eating Disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder).
• The patient does not require inpatient treatment or monitoring.
• The patient does not suffer from other serious mental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, substance abuse disorder).
• The patient consents to his/her participation in the therapeutic activities organised by the Centre.

The interdisciplinary approach is the main reference point of the activities organised by the Day Centre, since the complexity of Eating Disorders makes treatment almost impossible without the co-operation of health professionals. Therefore, our treatment team is composed by a psychiatrist, two child psychiatrsts, a general practitioner, two psychologists, a dietician and an occupation therapist.

Our Centre’s therapeutic activities include psychotherapy (individual, family or group therapy), pharmacotherapy, family counselling, dietary counselling and psychoeducation.

Furthermore, the Day Care Centre aims to:

1. Utilize the epidemiologic data to carve out policies for dealing with eating disorders.
2. Acquire new knowledge on the Greek reality and improve therapeutic intervention methods.
3. Launch prevention and health promotion programs for making the public (students, parents, educators) aware of the problem.
4. Organize educational seminars on Eating Disorders for mental health professionals.

Dr. Evgenia Soumaki
Child psychiatrist – Psychoanalyst
Head of the Scientific Team of ANASA Day Centre
Vice-president of the European Society of Child psychiatrists
Secretary of the Hellenic Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Member of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association (Child psychiatric branch)