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  • Austria - Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, Vienna
  • Belgium - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven
  • Bulgaria - Global Initiative on Psychiatry, Sofia
  • Czech Republic - Centre for Mental Health Care Development, Prague
  • Finland - National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki
  • Germany - Heinrich Heine University, Duesseldorf
  • Greece - University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens
  • Hungary - Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC), Budapest
  • Italy - University of Verona, Verona
  • Lithuania - University of Vilnius, Vilnius
  • Netherlands - Stichting Kenniscentrum Rehabilitatie, Amsterdam
  • Romania - Romanian Association of Community Psychiatry, Bucharest
  • Slovakia - Integra o.z., Michalovce
  • Turkey - Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul
  • United Kingdom - King's College London, London
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Global Initiative on Psychiatry, Sofia, BG

The Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) is an international non-profit organisation for the promotion of humane, ethical and effective mental health care worldwide.

Employing the 25-year experience of GIP-Holland, GIP-Sofia has been working since 2002 in the South East European (SEE) region to support the mental health reforms. We have proved experience in sensitizing and involving the main stakeholders, bringing together the variety of perspectives - the user, the relative, the professional and the governmental one. Our capacity to undertake leading position has been demonstrated by the efficient implementation of a number of national and international projects. All of our initiatives are based on serious preparation, including: conducting systematic reviews on existing services and legislation, situation analyses and needs assessment, using both qualitative and quantitative evidence. In our practice we carry out surveys, focus groups and interviews to evaluate the quality of our projects.

Mission Statement

Our vision is that every person should have the opportunity to realise his or her full potential as a human being, notwithstanding personal vulnerabilities or life circumstances.

Every society, accordingly, has a special obligation to establish a comprehensive, integrated system for providing ethical, humane and individualized treatment, care, and rehabilitation, and to counteract stigmatization of, and discrimination against, people with mental disorders or histories of mental health treatment. An enlightened services system promotes mutually respectful partnerships between persons who receive services and those who deliver them, protects the human rights of users and the ethical autonomy of service providers, and facilitates the engagement of users, families, and all other stakeholders in advocating for and achieving improvements in the quality of care.
Recognizing that these aspirations remain everywhere unfulfilled, and that the rights and needs of persons with mental disorders are particularly vulnerable to infringement and neglect, the mission of Global Initiative on Psychiatry is to promote humane, ethical, and effective mental health care throughout the world and to support a global network of individuals and organizations to develop, advocate for, and carry out the necessary reforms.
GIP-Sofia undertakes projects and activities that advance all dimensions of mental health systems and care, including:

1. Deinstitutionalisation and transforming institutional care
2. Empowering users, carers and professionals
3. Engaging in policy development and advocacy
4. Anti-stigma and public awareness campaigns for people with mental illness and others
5. Human rights and accessibility of help. Anti-discrimination.

Team Members

• Valentina Hristakeva, Director of Global Initiative on Psychiatry - Sofia
Professional Education: Social Work (BA, Burgas Free University)
She is responsible for the overall management and implementation of the project activities of the regional centre, service monitoring and evaluation; She also has experience as a consultant, researcher and trainer in the field of social and mental health.


• Tanya Markova, Project Manager, GIP-Sofia
Professional Education: Psychology (BA, NBU), Social Work (MA, NBU)
She has experience as public awareness officer, developing anti-stigma and mental health info centre initiatives; Consultant to social and mental health projects; clinical practice in psychosocial centre for mental health and experience administrating questionnaires.


• Gergana Georgieva, Project Manager
Professional Education: Psychology (BA, NBU), Intercultural Communication (MA, Sofia University), Social Policy (Leeds University)
She has experience in health promotion and education; management and monitoring of projects, experience as youth worker and care worker; conducting interviews and focus groups.


• Maya Gocheva, Project Manager, GIP-Sofia
Professional Education: Business management (Academy of economics, Svistov (MA) and University of Economics Varna (B.Sc) PhD candidate (NBU)
Professional areas of interest - Project Implementation Cycle; Gender Equity development; Rights Based approach in Development projects. She is also a lecturer at the NBU, and advisor on European funds.


• Tatyana Hristova, Project Manager, GIP-Sofia
Professional Education: Sociology (BA, Sofia University), Labour markets and development of HR (MA, Sofia University)
She has experience in Social Analyses, Research, Sociological analyses, developing and implementing a variety of investigations. She also has good knowledge in designing monitoring and evaluation indicators and systems. Currently she is coordinator of EU funded projects ITHACA and ASPEN.


• Branimir Bogdanov, Financial Manager
Professional Education: Economics of industry (BA, University of Economics - Varna), Finance Management (MSc. Academy of Economics "D.A Cenov" Svishtov)
He has experience in financial analyses, management and administration on national and international projects implementation.


• Anelia Zaharieva, PR Coordinator
Professional Education: International Business Relations (BA, University of National and World Economy)
She has experience in international trade - customs, delivery planning & distribution, logistics; marketing; journalism. Her business and reporter's experience has helped her establish good relationships with various large-scale business entities, which, in turn, would be a foundation for designing and implementing an efficient fund-raising strategy.

Contact

Global Initiative on Psychiatry - Sofia
1 Maliovitza Str.
1000 Sofia
BULGARIA
Phone: +359 (0)2 987 78 75
Fax: +359 (0)2 980 93 68
Email: sofia(at)gip-global.org
www.gip-global.org