Biography
Prof. Dr. Marija Raleva is child and adolescent psychiatrist and family therapist, Professor of Psychiatry and Developmental Psychopathology at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, and a lecturer at the Institute for Marriage, Family and Systemic Practice – ALTERNATIVA. As a clinician and therapist, she specializes in working with vulnerable families with child externalizing and internalizing problems. In particular, Prof Raleva has expertise in the field of prevention of violence against children and prevention of lifelong mental health consequences of child abuse and neglect. She was a National Focal Point for Violence Prevention in North Macedonia from 2006 to 2015 wherein she coordinated the activities of North Macedonia’s Ministry of Health and the WHO Country Office. From 2013 to 2015, she led an interdisciplinary team who worked together to develop the National Action Plan for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, which was supported by WHO and UNICEF Country Offices. Prof Raleva has also worked on other impactful projects, including working to develop an intersectoral protocol for the prevention of and protection from child abuse and neglect (2014); co-authoring the manual for health practitioners for prevention of CAN (2015); contributing to the European Report on Preventing Child Maltreatment (WHO 2013); and lending expertise to a team for developing tools to implement the European Child Maltreatment Prevention Action Plan (WHO 2015). Prof Raleva also coordinated several national and international projects on the prevention of CAN.