The Day-care Centre for the Elderly, run by the Municipal Company for Vocational Training and Studies (MCVTS) of the Thessaloniki Municipality, constitutes a special case of a Social Welfare structure that has surpassed the range of activities defined by the institutional framework, achieving significant levels of scientific and operational innovation.

Following an analysis of social needs in mental health, undertaken by the MCVTS and financed by the ROP for Central Macedonia, it was decided to focus the implementation of the project on elderly people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Thessaloniki Municipality supported the proposal with significant additional funding, renovating Villa Abbot in Kennedy Avenue and granting it for use by the MCVTS. In close collaboration, the Greek Association for Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases provided the Centre with 6 employees, holding a range of socially-related specializations, and took on scientific supervision of the programme.

Today, the Day-care Centre for the Elderly uses an exemplary, integrated methodological approach, implementing creative activity programmes, conducting on-going evaluation, developing innovative monitoring tools and achieving significant results in improvement and retraction of the intellectual and mnemonic functions of patients suffering from dementia. University institutions nationwide have demonstrated significant interest, since post-graduate students have participated in the project as part of their practical work experience. In addition, with the assistance of the State Scholarships’ Foundation (IKY), the Day-care Centre is participating in a European Programme to train adults working in similar institutions (Socrates/Grundtvig), in the context of which a partnership framework has been created between non-governmental bodies in Germany, Slovakia, Lithuania and Belgium. The continuation of the programme is guaranteed, since - by unanimous agreement among the partners - MCVTS will take on coordination of the partnership and the training of employees in the respective structures, in the participant Countries.

While the field of mental health is characterized by diffidence on the part of both the State and the private sector, as far as the creation of this type of patient-care structure is concerned, this Centre has been the first in Greece to provide integrated services to elderly people suffering from Alzheimer.