Country profiles

Cyprus

Overview

Cyprus has an area of 9251 km² with an estimated population of 652 300 in 1997. Seventy per cent of the people live in urban areas and 30% live in rural areas. In 1992, the total adult literacy rate and the adult female literacy rate were estimated at 94% and 90.3%, respectively. Five per cent of the total population are illiterate, 35% have elementary education, 44% have high school education and 16% have a university or college education. The population below 15 years of age and above 65 years of age was 24.7% and 11%, respectively in 1996.

Based on the most recent statistics, the total life expectancy at birth was estimated at 77.6 years in 1995. Also, life expectancy at birth was estimated at 75.3 years for men and 79.8 years for women in 1995. Infant mortality rate was estimated at 8 per 1000 live births in 1996. In 1997, the maternal mortality rate was 1.5 per 10 000 live births. In 1996, the under-5 mortality rate was estimated to be 10 per 1000 live births and the crude birth rate was 14.9 per 1000 population. [Footnote: Figures in the previous two paragraphs are based on statistics from the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean] ^*

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental health care needs are met mainly by the state and are used by 70% of the population. They are basically free of charge.

Athalassa Hospital. This is the only sizeable mental hospital in the country, with 220 patients with low bed occupancy down from 700 patients In 1977 . Until recently, it accepted patients only under court order. With the new mental health legislation, voluntary patients are admitted also. There are 14 wards, many of them recently refurbished. Two of them are psychogeriatric, two are for the mentally retarded (mentally retarded people are no longer admitted to this hospital), one medical ward, one acute admissions (mixed), three wards for rehabilitation and another two for chronic psychotic patients.

Psychiatric unit of Nicosia General Hospital. The building is within the grounds of the hospital. It has 24 beds. All patients are admitted voluntarily. It has a full multidisciplinary team, a liaison service with the rest of the hospital, and a busy outpatient department, where every day there are two psychiatrists and one psychologist in attendance plus other paramedical services. There were 12 436 visits during 1997, compared to 15 600 in 1990. Further, there were 444 admissions compared to 485 in 1990.

Two hostels for discharged patients have started funtioning since 1999 in Nicosia.

Psychiatric unit in Limassol General Hospital. This has 24 beds with similar functions to its Nicosia counterpart. The outpatient centre is located elsewhere. There were 419 admissions in 1997 compared to 318 in 1990.

A hostel for disharged patients is functioning in Limassol.

Centre for mental health. This is located in the old General Hospital, has a busy outpatient department and works jointly with nongovernmental organizations in helping drug addicts with various programmes on an outpatient basis. The centre runs a day centre similar to those in Nicosia and Limassol. There are two psychiatrists and one part-time clinical psychologist in Larnaca. A psychiatrist from the Centre pays a weekly visit to the outpatient clinic in Paralimni, the main township of the Famagusta district. There were 7989 visits in Larnaca in 1997 compared to 8593 in 1990. In Paralimni, the figures were 1294 and 1428, respectively. Seven community psychiatric nurses look after 200 patients.

There is a multidisciplinary team with one psychiatrist which was enriched by the appointment of a part-time psychologist and psychiatrist. The team is located in the new Paphos General Hospital. They had 4550 visits compared to 6396 in 1990. Four community psychiatric nurses look after 113 patients. Reform of psychiatric health services in Cyprus is in progress.

The new legislation referring to treatment, admission and care of the mentally ill has been adopted by parliament and is now law. It is in accord with the regulations proposed by WHO. The rights of people are fully covered. A supervising multidisciplinary team that includes lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and so forth, has been appointed by the Ministerial Council. It will secure the rights of patients as well as the quality of the services offered.

Among other changes due to the new law, the Psychiatric Hospital now admits voluntary patients. This will further enable the discharge of mentally retarded and geriatric patients more easily.

The new five-year plan includes the division of the country into five administrative sectors. Each sector will be serviced by a mental health centre, with most of the facilities for patient rehabilitation. It will mobilize nongovernmental organizations, the church, other health services, local authorities, and other interested bodies.

The new five-year plan for national mental health policy started in 1998 and goes up to the year 2003. The psychiatric reform is supervised by a consulting team from Greece.

The new legislation envisaging a national anti-drug committee is ready and under discussion by parliament. This will streamline all anti-drug campaigns, will help suitable educational messages to be adopted, will finance appropriate programmes, and will supervise the whole anti-drug policies of Cyprus.

Child psychiatric problems are at present cared for by a special unit at Makarios Hospital and by the clinical psychologists in Limassol psychiatric unit. Unfortunately, no additional child psychiatrists were found for employment in the unit in Makarios Hospital. The plans are hindered and there is an inability to plan for the future.

There are two clinics in Nicosia and Limassol, with a total of almost 50 beds. The policy is to diminish all types of psychiatric admission. Therefore, it was decided that there was no need for more beds and further, that the two clinics covered the needs of the whole country, due to its small size and the effective implementation of psychiatric reform.

There is an ongoing collaboration between psychiatric and social services , and there are meetings to discuss matters of common interest.

Ongoing training has increased. Personnel are retrained both locally and abroad. Family therapy, crisis intervention, rehabilitation, management, European Union matters, Forensic psychiatry, psychotherapy and other topics are offered to them. Mental health services offer a three-month training course for doctors trained as general practitioners.

There are cooperative enterprises with nongovernmental organizations; there are volunteers working in day centres and people lobbying for them. Help has been provided in educating volunteers in order to make them more efficient.

There was a workshop on research methodology in 1996. There are two research projects due. There are plans to further advance cooperation especially towards education and research.