From asylum to hospital

It was initially founded in 1917 as an "Asylum for the mentally insane" with an initial number of 300 hospital beds, on Eirinis Street, in Vardaris, one of the ill-reputed areas of Thessaloniki.
In 1919 it started gradually to be transferred to its current location in the Municipality of Sravroupolis, in the area called "Lebet". This name derives possibly from pasha Lebet's pieces of land that were in the area or perhaps because the stables of the allied forces were there during World War I.
In 1925 the name was changed to "Public Mental Home" and for the first time laws were enacted and operation rules were laid down. The number of hospital beds was set to 150. Until that point, the mental patients were led away from society and the society of that time provided an inadequate type of psychiatric care through the "asylums".
From 1919 to 1934 the PHT was run by a team of employees and some important members of the society of the city.
During World War II, the terrible living conditions resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of patients, mainly due to malnutrition. Later on, in 1956 a new institution was founded, under the name of "Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki", with a set number of 800 hospital beds. The services were re-organized and a scientific council was created, while agricultural and industrial employment was introduced giving the opportunity for employment to patients. These reforms that dispelled the sense of the "asylum" conformed with the social movements and theories in Europe.
In 1960, the number of hospital beds was increased to 1000 while in 1965 the buildings' repair began. The Psychiatric Hospital extends over an area of 130 acres. In 1974, the operations regulations for mental homes were issued and the reform of the Institution of the Psychiatric Hospital took place in 1986 based on the law 1357/83 and the Presidential Decree 87/86. Since the western societies revised the way of dealing with mental patients, they proceeded to a functional and organisational reform of the system of psychiatric care. Until 1980, in Greece, patients with serious dysfunctions usually lived helpless in the community or were institutionalized in an asylum.
Later, however, the medical and sociological development gave some flexibility to mental health professionals who started engaging in relevant activities.