Just as everyone should have access to quality medical care, each person should have access to the mental health care they need. SNF grants have helped build capacity for this care and have helped organizations serving the most vulnerable populations provide psychological support.
Revamping mental health care for young people throughout Greece in partnership with the Child Mind Institute
In partnership with SNF, the Child Mind Institute is launching a five-year initiative to help enhance child and adolescent mental health care capacity and strengthen the infrastructure for prevention, assessment, and treatment of mental health struggles faced by children and adolescents in Greece.
Under SNF’s Health Initiative and the associated public-private partnership in place between SNF and the Greek state, the new Child Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) aims to expand access to mental health care and offer ground-up resources in ways that can reinforce the critical work done by mental health and child protection providers across the country.
With exclusive support from SNF, development and implementation of the CMHI will follow a collaborative model between a diverse, interdisciplinary team from the Child Mind Institute and a network of Greek professionals specializing in child mental health and psychosocial care. It envisions the creation of a Referral Network for child mental health, covering Alexandroupolis, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Athens, and Crete; training programs; and development of cutting-edge clinical technology to build system-wide capacity to meet needs on the ground.
The new program builds on SNF’s support, going back more than a decade, for the Child Mind Institute’s efforts to improve diagnosis and treatment of children’s mental health disorders by collecting data through the Healthy Brain Network and by fostering research through the Scientific Research Council.
Psychological and emotional support for populations specially affected in the pandemic
A major component of SNF’s $100 million global COVID-19 relief initiative was helping provide psychological support to populations especially affected by the pandemic. Partners include, among many others:
United States
- Hunter College Foundation, hiring an additional full-time counselor to provide mental health support to thousands of students, many from low-income families, as they face stresses including increased insecurity in food, finances, and employment
- Montefiore Medical Center, providing health care and mental health services to tens of thousands of students in New York public schools though the Montefiore School Health Program
- New Alternatives for Children, providing mental health support and other essentials to thousands of children with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and mental health diagnoses, as well as their families
- Osborne Association, hiring a part-time Trauma Clinician to facilitate therapy and mindfulness activities for people affected by the criminal justice system
- Peconic Bay Medical Center, piloting an effort to support frontline clinical staff with “psychological PPE” to help address the trauma and loss of caring for seriously ill patients
- Service Program for Older People, increasing the organization’s staff and technological capacity to provide remote mental health services to thousands of older New Yorkers
- Success Academy, creating a standardized social-emotional learning curriculum throughout their schools
- University Settlement, providing mental health support to young people and adults on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, including working through area schools
- YWCA of Queens, hiring part-time mental health professionals who speak Mandarin and Cantonese and who will provide mental health care support services to older adults
Spain
- Doctors of the World Spain, providing psychological services and other essentials to those living most precariously in Spain
- Grandes Amigos, enabling volunteers to offer remote emotional support to seniors
France
- Enfance et Partage, aiming to prevent child abuse in France through psychological support
Italy
- SOLTERRE, offering psychological support to frontline medical staff and others in Italy
Greece
- A COVID-19 psychological support hotline (10306)
- FC Barça Foundation, bolstering social sports programming offering emotional and psychological support for refugee children and young people on the island of Lesvos
Countries Across Central and South America
- Acción contra el Hambre, offering mental health consultation among other essential health services to people in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru
The Green Unit: Psychosocial Rehabilitation through Work in Green Spaces
Supporting people who face everyday stigma and marginalization with meaningful activities that give a sense of validation has been one of the greatest achievements of this program.
SNF Program Officer Panos Vazaios
Weaving mental health care into existing social services in New York
Connections to Care aims to get New Yorkers the mental health care they need by working through existing community-based organization programming, like Hudson Guild‘s early childhood programming for low-income families. SNF has given support both to Hudson Guild and directly to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which originated the program.
An on-the-ground, mid-pandemic view from Doctors Without Borders psychologists in Lesvos
I know the entire planet is experiencing the same situation, but the difference for us refugees is that our living conditions, combined with restrictions on movement and the threat of the virus, are doubly stressful.
Frederick, an MSF client in Greece
Read a perspective from Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) on the double challenge refugees face during the pandemic.
The Porch Light program from Philadelphia Mural Arts
In this setting, mural making turns therapeutic, opening a dialogue between trained artists, social workers, and those battling opioid addiction or mental health disorders.
SNF Program Officer Kira Pritchard
Looking to the mental health of new and expecting mothers in Greece
SNF helped support Greek nonprofit Fainareti in offering a Perinatal Mental Health Helpline for Pregnant Women and New Mothers, with a particular emphasis on reaching women in rural areas of the country.
A decade of mental health support for young people in Greece
The major new effort to revamp mental health care for young people in Greece builds on a program implemented a decade ago to help address the issue through a cluster of grants to Greek nonprofits and health care institutions.
Mental health support for refugees from IRC
A major SNF grant supports, among other elements of its work, the International Rescue Committee’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services for refugees on the island of Lesvos.
Explore more grants
- The Society of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health in offering medical and mental health professionals in Athens training to support people living with cancer
- The Hope for Depression Research Foundation in hosting the “Teens, Social Media, and Mental Health” public symposium in New York City
- Building capacity at the Association of Families & Friends for Mental Health of Serres
- The Pan-Hellenic Association of Families for Mental Health of Patras Gefyres Zois Day Center
- A Caring Hand provides bereavement services to children and their families in the New York City area
Learn more about SNF’s support for access to health as the foundation for good quality of life
