PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – To present and publicize the services offered by the Asp and, above all, to fight stigma and discrimination in order to bring out even the underground: in Italy, in fact, it is estimated that nearly two million people suffer from mental problems but do not receive treatment. And the initiative organized today by the Palermo Provincial Health Authority in Piazza Castelnuovo to mark World Mental Health Day, which has been celebrated every year since 1992 all over the planet, aims to raise awareness even more among young people and families. In the street closed to traffic that connects Via Libertà with Via Ruggero VII, an info-point, a listening and orientation point, workshops on social inclusion with third sector entities and on sports and prevention with the regional Football Federation were set up. All of these initiatives were organized as part of the “DSM and Citizens United for Mental Health” activities carried out by the Departments of Mental Health in 150 Italian squares with the aim of drawing public attention to mental health as everyone’s problem and to the urgency of a confrontation with institutions to find shared solutions. “It is really important that a problem such as mental health is shared worldwide,” stressed Regional Health Councillor Giovanna Volo in the discussion that found space within an area dedicated to debate, “an issue experienced no longer as a shame, but to be addressed and resolved in close collaboration with families and associations, and with the possibility of bringing to the territory what is the professionalism of experts. Because in addition to being here in the square, we already have mobile units to deal with these pathologies in a preventive way as well. The commitment of such a wide participation at the national level gives the meaning of the state’s willingness to deal with these kinds of difficulties from which many families are victims.”
What is worrying, however, is the share of the undeclared, as witnessed by the numbers: compared with 770,000 people with mental health problems throughout the country, equal to 1.5 percent of the population, it is estimated that at least another 2 million people do not have access to services and, often, the fear of stigma weighs in: “There is often a lack of recognition of the problem by those who would need treatment,” warns Daniela Faraoni, general director of the Asp of Palermo. To intercept the undeclared, therefore, it is necessary to create a network of services articulated throughout the territory because it unfortunately affects an increasingly wide range of citizens. There is a great attention in recognizing the mental health problem that needs to be addressed both on the level of prevention and treatment, and in recent years we have been engaged in transforming a treatment project into a life project. This is a winning formula because it allows the psychiatric patient to be included in activities including work: mental illness should not alienate, but should be welcomed to included in society.” However, cases are on the rise and to pay the price are often the most fragile categories, among them boys: “There is a wake-up call that affects increasingly younger segments of the population, 12-16 years old, unlike in the past, it increasingly involves the female gender,” he points out. “There is a malaise that probably we adults have not been able to fully understand, and that should be intercepted before it becomes irreversible. This results in a detachment from daily life and a refuge in addictions,” not only with the use of alcohol and drugs such as crack and fentanyl but also to “a form of alienation from social life that can be provoked by a disproportionate use of technology.”
Taking turns at the microphone in the debate area were the heads of the Asp’s services dedicated to reception, treatment and therapy, but also social reintegration through work grants that involved 37 Mental Health patients, of whom 6 were contracted indefinitely by the companies in which they were engaged. “The Asp of Palermo,” explained the director of the Mental Health Department of the Asp of Palermo, Maurizio Montalbano, “has launched 139 individual therapeutic paths supported by the health budget and another 301 are ready for next year. As for the Csm, for the most urgent cases there is “direct access while waiting lists do not exceed 20-30 days for a first access,” Montalbano continues, and then there is the Center for Adolescents and Young Adults with Psychic Distress and Complex Needs for the 16-25 age group: “In a year and a half we have taken on 480 young people both as direct access, also mediated by schools, and through our services. That seems like a good number when we consider that we are working with 45 percent fewer psychiatrists. The strategic management of the Asp has done everything possible to expand the staff but there are no doctors,” he concludes, “three times the competitions have been deserted.
-photo press office Asp Palermo –
(ITALPRESS).
Mental health, Asp Palermo “Overcoming stigma and bringing out the underground”
