Greece

The history of mental healthcare offered to people with intellectual disabilities in Greece runs in parallel to that of people suffering from severe psychiatric disorders. Until the early 1980s, it was based on 9 overcrowded and understaffed state and 40 private psychiatric hospitals with a mixed population of patients with psychosis and of those with intellectual disabilities (Madianos et al, 1999). The psychiatric reforms began with Law 1397 in 1983, which introduced the National Health System, and, in the following year, European Council Regulation 815/84, through which financial aid was approved and a 5-year plan adopted. The main goal was the development of a network of community-based services in geographically sectorised areas, to replace the large psychiatric hospitals. Mental health centres, psychiatric units in general hospitals and many other community services were to be established, according to local requirement.