News

February 2026

We, undersigned mental health professionals, wish to express our serious concern regarding recent developments affecting university autonomy across Georgia and the planned reduction of educational and research programs at Ilia State University.

Among the programs subject to cancellation is the Master’s Program in Mental Health. For fourteen years, this program has played a unique role not only in Georgia but across the region. It was established and developed through the sustained efforts of our colleagues, Professors Nino Makhashvili and Jana Javakhishvili, and has become a cornerstone in the training of mental health professionals.

The program provides training in two essential fields – psychotraumatology and social psychiatry – both of which are fundamental to modern mental health practice, particularly approaches focused on prevention and addressing social determinants of mental health.

The program brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds, including psychologists, social workers, physicians, psychiatrists, and occupational therapists, preparing them to work within multidisciplinary teams.

Graduates contribute directly to community-based services; for example, at the unique interdisciplinary transdiagnostic mental health service for youth that professors N. Makhashvili and J. Javakhishvili founded – ‘Club Synergy’ – they have provided free services to adolescents and young people for seven consecutive years.

Similarly, the Mental Health MA Program graduates have been providing free psychological counselling to university students in need since 2019 – this is the first student psychological counselling centre established within a higher education institutions in Georgia, founded by Professors Makhashvili and Javakhishvili.

Discontinuation of the program would significantly limit the preparation of comprehensively trained specialists. This would adversely affect the quality and accessibility of services for individuals with mental health conditions and broader population groups, while also weakening the country’s academic and research capacity in the mental health field.

Implementation of the planned reductions would therefore risk substantial and lasting harm both to the professional education of care providers and to the well-being of vulnerable populations in Georgia.

In light of the above, we respectfully call for the immediate suspension of the process to reduce or abolish the Mental Health MA Programme at Ilia State University. We also strongly urge a reconsideration of the reform measures and the protection of institutional autonomy within Georgian universities.

Respectfully,

Signatories

Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft, King’s College London, UK

Professor Robert van Voren, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania; Human Rights in Mental Health/Federation GIP (FGIP)

• Professor Dr George Szmukler,  King’s College London, UK
• Dr Petr Winkler, Human Rights in Mental Health/ FGIP, Germany
• Dr Marianne Schulze, LL.M. Human Rights in Mental Health/FGIP, Austria
• Dr Rob Keukens, GGZ Ecademy, The Netherlands
• Professor Sir Simon Wessely, King’s College London, UK
• Professor Emeritus Dr Dean Ajdukovic, University of Zagreb, Croatia Department of Psychology, Past President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
• Professor Dr Michal Miovský, MA, PhD, Charles University, General Teaching Hospital, Department of Addictology, Czech Republic, President of the International Consortium of Universities on Drug Demand Reduction (ICUDDR), Czech Republic
• Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry Dr Arieh Y Shalev, MD, The Hebrew University and Hadassah School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel
• Professor Emeritus Dr Berthold Gersons, former chair of the Department of Psychiatry of the Amsterdam University Medical Centre and former senior Advisor of ARQ National Trauma Centre in the Netherlands, Past President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, The Netherlands
• Professor Evaldas Kazlauskas, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
• Professor Dr. of med Ingo Schäfer, MPH Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
• Professor Andreas Maerker, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• Professor Emeritus of Psychotraumatology Dr Rolf J. Kleber, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
• Professor Dr. Rita Rosner, Lehrstuhlinhaberin Klinische und Biologische Psychologie, KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Ostenstr., Eichstätt, Germany
• Professor Dr Miranda Olff, Amsterdam UMC, Dept of Psychiatry, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Dr Vamik Volkan, University of Virginia; Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington-Baltimore Psychoanalytic Institute, The United States
• Karile Levickaite, Mental Health Europe, member of the Board of Directors; Mental Health Perspectives, Lithuania
• Olena Protsenko, Armed Conflict Unit at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
• Professor Dr Dainius Pūras, Clinic of Psychiatry, Faculty of medicine, Vilnius university
• Professor Philippe Delespaul, Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology University of Maastricht, თhe Netherlads
• Professor Dominic Murphy, Combat Stress, UK & King's College London, UK; Acting President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS)
• Clinical Professor in Psychiatry Dr Jonathan Bisson, Cardiff University, Director of the National Centre for Mental Health, Cardiff, Wales, UK

 2026