Enrichment of Prevention Methodologies with Self Help/Mutual aid practices: The case of the Centre of Prevention Greece

Background
The Centre of the Prevention of Addictions and the Promotion of Psychosocial Health of Larissa together with its project, the Workshop of Life (an award-wining model structure that combines primary prevention and the arts),carry out universal prevention interventions in the community, with a reliable presence and more than 800 participants per year, aiming to create local communities and networks that increase civic engagemant. 
The Self- Help Promotion Programme is a programme of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, active in the field of prevention and treatment of addictions and other psychosocial problems and develops activities in cooperation with schools, institutions, bodies, collectives and groups of the local community. 
These two structures collaborate, co-train and train adults for the creation of self- managed groups. The target group consists of adults who, after years of participation in the prevention groups, continue to approach the Prevention Centre and the Workshop of Life with a request to become dependent on the functions and activities of these structures. This raises concerns for the prevention staff, which have identified a risk of unintentional transformation of the prevention model into an informal psychotherapy model.
Method
Training staff and trainers in the principles of self- help/mutual aid is the first step. This is followed by adaptation to a self-management model of prevention and psychosocial promotion. Over a period time, the trainers train adults who have applied to take part in the self-management groups and take notes of each meeting. Regular supervision and reflection sessions take place with the participation of the trainers of the self-help program, the scietific staff of the prevention centre and the trainers of the self-management groups. This is followed by the independence of the self-management groups from the trainers, after the self-definition of their identity, "common ground", role rotation within the group, decision-making and planned actions in the community.
Results
3 groups were created in the framework of the programme; one group of teachers from the Prevention Centre and two self-management groups from the Workshop of Life. A total of 40 participants have joined in the first year of the programme. 
Conclusions
It is an innovative practice that seeks to distinguish the field of prevention and promotion of psychosocial health from therapeutic interventions in an evidence - based way. Through the programme, staff is empowered to use the educational outcomes in other traditional, established practices. Members of the groups benefit in many ways, both in terms of psychosocial health and civic management. The community benefits from the activities of the groups and the transfer of the principles of prevention, solidarity, equality and autonomy to the general public. Finally,the project generates research data useful for further scientific exploration and study of the self-help mutual aid.