Armed conflicts carry not only the risk of mortality, but have serious consequences on the mental health of children. The latter may concern not only children and adolescents directly involved in the tragedy of war, in Ukraine as in other parts of the planet, but also for those in Italy and around the world, already severely tested by the effects of the pandemic.
The Italian Society of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry (Sinpia), with a note, expresses deep concern for the effects of the war in Ukraine on the physical, mental and social health of the most fragile subjects such as children and adolescents, even more so if they suffer from any type of disability. "They are highly vulnerable to stress and with less ability to adapt to trauma, with devastating consequences on their development and therefore on their future which is the future of the world", explains Elisa Fazzi, president of Sinpia and director of the Child Neuropsychiatry Unit and adolescence ASST Spedali Civili and University of Brescia.
"It is with infinite discouragement, disbelief and pain - he continues - that we witness, after two years of the pandemic, which has severely tested the entire global community and specifically the mental health of minors, of the emergence of the winds of war on the European continent with a scenario that we never expected to see again after the Second World War. We didn't think this would ever happen again in Europe."
The war, clarifies the note from the Scientific Society, arrives at an already critical moment for the well-being of the most fragile subjects. According to data from a large international study on the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of minors (children and adolescents) recently presented at the Sinpia Congress, Children's mental well-being has declined by more than 10% globally, with the number of children needing specialist support doubling, and with an increase in anger, boredom, difficulty concentrating, sense of loneliness and impotence, stress, sleep disturbances.
To this scenario are now added the consequences of the war that broke out in Europe. The medical literature reports
numerous studies on the consequences of armed conflicts on individuals in developmental age, such as a higher
risk of premature birth and an increase in infant mortality as well as an increase in the number of orphaned children.
"During childhood and adolescence, a higher incidence of anxiety and mood disorders is reported, with evolution, in 30-40% cases, into post-traumatic stress disorder - explains Alessandro Zuddas, vice president of Sinpia and director of the Childhood and Adolescence Unit of the A Cao Hospital, University of Cagliari - This psychopathological condition determines an important impairment of mental health even in adulthood".
Recent research also highlights how the psychological consequences of war persist in subsequent generations, resulting in negative transgenerational repercussions on mental health. This applies to children in countries where war is underway, but to some extent it also applies to children who see the war on television or through adults' stories.
For Sinpia, as well as at a European level for the European society for child and adolescent psychiatry (Escap) of which they do
many specialists, including Ukrainian and Russian ones, the first objective must be to protect psychophysical health as much as possible
of every child and adolescent and therefore of every human being, to allow children and young people in Italy, Europe and around the world to grow up safe from the threats and consequences of armed conflicts.
"In this time of great uncertainty - underlines Antonella Costantino, past president of Sinpia and director of the OU of
Child and adolescent neuropsychiatry (Uonpia) of the Irccs Ca' Granda Foundation Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milan - it is essential to do everything possible to protect our children, loudly calling for an end to war, every war. Unfortunately, this war will add many more to the number of children who will suffer life-threatening injuries or future disabilities, as well as trauma that will affect their mental health."
An anticipatory thought, finally urges Sinpia's note, should also be addressed to what is already happening in all European countries, including ours, with thearrival of refugee and/or orphan children from the areas involved in the conflict. Traumatized children who have been denied a future and who risk being further traumatized by reception systems
unsuitable. Children who will meet other children, our children, who will also question the reasons for this tragedy
and how we will be able to provide answers. We will have to think about everyone and we will have to teach everyone how to live in peace.
Rights of children and adolescents
"Intercepting signs of distress and intervening in a timely and effective manner are essential skills for those who work with young people." He declared it today Rodolfo Lena, President of the Health Commission of the Lazio Regional Council, speaking at the conference 'Bridge the gap. Intervention tools for young people's mental health, promoted by the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation, by ASL Roma 1 to present the results of the European Project YouProMe.
"This project - underlined Lena - was born with the aim of offer Youth Workers (figures who work in various capacities in close contact with young people) models and tools to intervene in favor of the well-being and mental health of young people. The Youth Worker is a figure recognized by European policies and a precious resource in our country too: a large number of people who play a strategic role as sports coaches, youth group leaders, art teachers. Often these are also volunteers, who make their skills available which in this historical moment have become even more important, given the dramatic psychological consequences of Covid on younger people".
"Adolescence represents a high-risk phase because identity is built in this period. The pandemic has had, and is still having, a strong push towards isolation among adolescents, even more so among those who had already shown discomfort mental. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, cases of depression and anxiety among adolescents have more than doubled. Access to the emergency room and hospital admissions in 30% also doubled, with peaks in 70% in eating disorders, according to data from the ASL Roma 1. Immediate interventions are needed at different levels, in synergy between educational, scholastic and social-health institutions. Lazio - concluded the President of the Health Commission of the Regional Council - is implementing a work to support and increase the territorial child neuropsychiatry services and more generally all the services for the protection of mental health and rehabilitation of developmental age, the only ones capable of having the necessary multidisciplinary approach".
Commitment, values and future are the cornerstones of the Universal Civil Service. Principles which inspire the activities and projects of the Di Liegro Foundation. Our goal is to train aware citizens of their role within the local community, who are bearers of a vision of society based on attention to rights and needs of the most fragile people in the social fabric.
We are looking for young people who love life communication and the relation, whatever they want team up for a concrete project, who are interested inempathy and to theI listen, particularly in the area of psychosocial well-being.
If you have just graduated, if you don't work and you want to dedicate part of your time to your community, the Civil Service at the Di Liegro Foundation offers you a significant educational and training experience. This is an opportunity to engage in active citizenship, an opportunity to increase one's wealth of knowledge, which can be used throughout one's working life, while ensuring financial recognition at the same time.
The Civil Service volunteers at the Di Liegro Foundation will contribute toorganization, to the support and to communication from the training activities aimed at citizens, volunteers and family members, of Telephone listening and orientation service, and to those of the Self-help groups to support families of people with mental and mental health problems socialization and art therapy workshops.
The training of volunteers is oriented in particular to the consideration of the "person with discomfort", as "a person who, at a certain stage of his life, is suffering from a mental problem."
The project of the Di Liegro Foundation is “From loneliness to inclusion” (project code: PTXSU0011221010102NMTX) and is part of the ASL RM2 program “We look after the most fragile 2” (program code PMCSU0011221010035NMTX). Download the ASL RM2 program poster.
>>> For information call 06.6792669 or write to segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it
The general objective of the project is to promote and implement the activation of resources within the social network of people with mental health problems and their family members.
Specific objectives:
Young people who, on the date of submitting the application, have turned eighteen and have not exceeded twenty-eight years of age (28 years and 364 days) can participate in the selections.
Aspiring volunteer operators must submit the application for participation exclusively through the Online Application (DOL) platform which can be reached via PC, tablet and smartphone at the address https://domandaonline.serviziocivile.it.
The deadline for submitting applications is set at 2.00 pm on 9 March 2022.
Italian citizens residing in Italy or abroad and citizens of non-European Union countries regularly residing in Italy can access it exclusively with SPID, the Public Digital Identity System. On the website ofAgency for Italy Digital all the information is available on what the SPID is, what services it offers and how to request it. To access the application compilation and submission services on the DOL platform, the candidate must be recognized by the system.
To find out more about the Universal Civil Service: https://www.serviziocivile.gov.it/
Download the Notice for the selection of 56,205 volunteer operators to be employed in projects relating to universal civil service intervention programs to be carried out in Italy, abroad, in the territories of the regions affected by the National Operational Program - Youth Employment Initiative (PON-IOG "Youth Guarantee" – Measure 6 bis) and in specific intervention programs for the experimentation of the “Digital Civil Service”.
>>> For information call 06.6792669 or write to segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it
The European project "YouProMe -Youth Workers Promoting Mental Health" outlined the YouProMe Portfolio, a set of Youth Worker skills in the field of intervention with young people experiencing mental health problems.
A document that arises from the need to integrate the general skills and practices of Youth Work with a set of specific knowledge regarding the area of mental distress in young people.
The YouProMe Portfolio defines knowledge, skills, attitudes and values useful in working in this specific area of intervention and in connecting with the world of youth.
The tool is organized as a progressive model of functions and skills that advance the attention and focus of intervention of the youth worker from the personal world of the young person experiencing mental distress towards the world of social relationships in which he or she is inserted. Movement which involves an integration of the youth worker's intervention with the various resources and numerous actors of the territorial context, necessarily "open", in which he finds himself operating.
The Di Liegro Foundation leads the European project Youth Worker Promoting Mental Health (YouProMe)
Pandemic, young people and mental distress: there is a real mental health crisis underway, especially among the very young, and the pandemic is the triggering cause. The alarm comes from National Congress from the Italian Society of NeuroPsychoPharmacology (Sinpf).
The incidence of depression and anxiety among adolescents has doubled compared to before the pandemic and a large meta-analysis just published on JAMA Pediatrics, which included 29 studies of more than 80,000 young people, showed that today one in 4 adolescents, in Italy and around the world, has clinical symptoms of depression and one in 5 signs of an anxiety disorder. This widespread mental distress risks putting a serious threat on the future health of children.
The probability of mental disorders is particularly high among older children, more than children, they explain
psychiatrists, have felt the effects of the restrictions. All this is also confirmed by a second study on 1,500 children
teenagers, published on Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. A situation that can
unfortunately have negative consequences in the long term: it has in fact been shown that suffering from depression during
childhood and adolescence is associated as adults with worse health, mental and beyond, and greater difficulties in relationships. It is therefore necessary, in the context of the pandemic, young people and mental distress, to "intercept the distress in young people and intervene with the most appropriate tools".
"All the research agrees: with the pandemic an alarming percentage of very young people are showing signs of a mental distress - explains Claudio Mencacci, co-president of Sinpf and emeritus director of neurosciences and mental health at the ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan - The rates of depression and anxiety that are recorded are directly related to
restrictions: that is, they increase when sociality is prevented, when we have to return to distance learning,
when relationships with peers cannot be cultivated. Those who pay the highest price are the children of upper secondary school, an essential phase for new experiences and for the first goals: not living in normality 'milestones' such as the final exam or the first loves for the psyche of a very young person it is similar to bereavement and as such can be a trigger for anxiety and depression. Many may have symptoms of mental distress that then resolve, but many are showing that they cannot get out of it. Not to mention those who were already fragile before Covid, for whom the pandemic was even more difficult to deal with. Everyone must be intercepted and helped."
And when psychotherapeutic treatment alone is not enough, drugs can also help. "The debate on the prescription of antidepressants in childhood and adolescence is still open: some are approved for use in this group, others are still used off label" - say Mencacci and Matteo Balestrieri, co-president of Sinpf - Antidepressants can and should be administered to an adolescent if it is appropriate, but careful monitoring and a treatment path that takes into account the emotional and cognitive situation is always necessary".
Photo by Nandhu Kumar from Pexels
La Nomina srl, in collaboration with the Don Luigi Di Liegro Foundation, is organizing an online meeting via the ZOOM platform on January 17th, at 5 pm, to promote and illustrate the new Universal Civil Service Notice 2022.
The meeting is dedicated, in particular, to aspiring volunteers to explain to them how to correctly submit the application to participate in the 2021 Universal Civil Service Call, illustrate the various opportunities available and respond to any request for information regarding the Civil Service .
In particular, the meeting will be divided as follows:
All interested parties can book their participation in the meeting online in the following ways:
The aspiring volunteers who have registered their participation in the event will then be contacted to send the access link to the meeting on the ZOOM platform.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
Rights of children and adolescents: economic and educational poverty is combined today with the poverty produced by the health crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequent adaptation of the lifestyle of girls and boys to containment measures, is influencing their life choices and risks accentuating pre-existing social inequalities.
We will talk about it on Tuesday 14th December, in the Aula Magna of the Roma Tre University - Department of Education Sciences, during conference by title RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - VISIONS ON THE FUTURE OF NEW GENERATIONS. The event is promoted by the project #liberailFuturo, in which the Di Liegro Foundation also participates
The suspension of school lessons and the closure of all recreational, educational, inclusion and support activities has hit girls and boys hardest, especially those living in conditions of poverty or social marginalization, as well as the most vulnerable boys (such as example minors with disabilities and unaccompanied foreign minors), for whom access to these activities sometimes represents the only possibility of empowerment.
During the conference, the qualitative results of the project monitoring carried out by the professor will be presented Sandra Chistolini of the Department of Educational Sciences of Roma Tre University. The data swill be compared with the quantitative ones of the research carried out by Demopolis on behalf of the Social Enterprise With the children.
The Conference will therefore be an opportunity to define the new operational proposals to achieve the objectives set by the #liberailFuturo project and which may be useful for strengthening the Educational Community.
After the conference, scheduled for the morning, in four are scheduled for the afternoon workshops, with the aim of opening a debate on the future of young people and indicating the future guidelines of the project:
How to participate in the conference?
Write an email to liberailfuturoroma@gmail.com indicating whether you want to participate only in the conference, only in one of the afternoon workshops or both the conference and one of the afternoon workshops.
They are mainly men (83.6%), residing in the north and centre, with an average age of 35 years. It is the photograph of the user who called the AIDS and STI helpline of the Higher Institute of Health in 2021, for a total of 6,219 calls. The questions addressed to the experts mainly concern doubts about heterosexual relationships with occasional partners, the methods of transmission of HIV and STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) (32.4%), the testing procedures for these infections (28.0%). A third of the questions asked by women concern tests (how long after to carry them out, how and where to carry them out), the questions asked by men focus, in more than a third of cases, on the ways of HIV transmission. In approximately 10% of phone calls, evident misinformation still emerges regarding the risk modalities of HIV.
In a proportion equal to 36.2% of all phone calls received in 2021, it emerges that users belonging to the AIDS and STI helpline have never taken an HIV test. 'These 2021 data are in line with those that can be deduced from the over 820 thousand calls received to the AIDS and IST toll-free telephone starting from June 1987 - the ISS says in a statement - and suggest that this service is still necessary today to respond to the information needs of those who are there
access, as it provides, in a personalized way, answers supported by solid scientific bases'. Furthermore, the availability of a database of 650 diagnostic-clinical centers and 28 checkpoints present throughout the national territory allows the experts of the AIDS and STI toll-free telephone to provide the person who calls with useful information regarding where to carry out the HIV testing and how.
The HIV/AIDS/STI counseling service telephone, anonymous and free, active since 1987, it is located within the Psycho-socio-behavioural Research, Communication and Training Operational Unit of the Infectious Diseases Department of the ISS. 'The experience acquired over many years of activity and the operational procedures developed to provide scientific answers to the complex questions posed by people-users - continues the ISS press release - have meant that in the face of the emergency caused by SARS- CoV-2, the AIDS and STI helpline team would welcome the information needs of users also regarding the COVID-19 health emergency, providing information on national and regional services, sending to the public utility number 1500 of the Ministry of Health , to the toll-free numbers activated in the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, to the official websites of the Health departments and institutions (Civil Protection, Italian Red Cross, etc.), responsible for providing information to the population present in the different territories.
Furthermore, a real primary prevention intervention was provided through the AIDS and STI helpline
in systematically indicating to users the need to maintain all measures aimed at avoiding the risk of contagion
from SARS-CoV-2, particularly in social and sexual relationships with unknown partners'. In this context, it was
carried out, in the period March - September 2021, the telephone survey regarding the acceptability of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in users belonging to the AIDS and STI toll-free telephone, the purpose of which was to detect the characteristics
socio-demographics, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
people-users relating to TV AIDS and STIs. 528 users, mostly male, participated in the telephone survey.
young adults, employed professionals, with a high level of education and who in 44.3% cases had already undergone
satisfaction with the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.
With regard to the area of consultancy on legal matters, the Higher Institute of Health informs that two days a week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm, a legal expert is available to users who access the telephone green AIDS and STI, with regards to aspects relating to discrimination or problems in the workplace and welfare fields. 'The progressive chronicization of HIV infection, a consequence of important medical advances - explains the Institute - has determined in the last twenty years a significant prolongation of the average survival of people with HIV, making the lives of those living with this infection much more common than in the past'.
However, a fact that emerges from the observation of today's reality should be underlined: 'The undoubted progress made in these
The last twenty years of medicine - continues the ISS - have not proceeded hand in hand with an evolution of perception
of the disease and with the long hoped for overcoming of the stigma related to it'. Therefore the current situation conveys the image of an increasingly numerous population of HIV+ people who are struggling to face the reality of a family, emotional and professional life in which the weight of prejudice and irrational fear towards
disease are often not only unchanged compared to twenty years ago, but in some cases even worsened by the consequences of
discontinuous and sometimes not very effective information and preventive interventions, as well as by the reduction in the level of services
social welfare and the standard of living in general.
The current SARS Cov-2 epidemic, adds the ISS, has made this reality 'more difficult and uncomfortable for people with HIV infection, now chronic, who have witnessed a significant worsening in the level of care healthcare especially during the periods of greatest spread of Covid-19, when the infectious disease departments were literally overwhelmed by the emergency, with the consequence of becoming, in some cases, completely inaccessible to anyone not affected by the new infection'.
In order to implement institutional communication and information activities on infectious diseases, since 2013, the Telephone
green AIDS and STIs is complemented by the interactive website 'United against AIDS' which, in addition to 'providing updated content relating to the methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and STIs - explains the ISS - plays a continuous role in disseminating scientific innovations and events that promote the prevention of STIs , allowing, also thanks to the connected social channels (Twitter, YouTube), a fruitful activity of spreading the culture of testing, fighting stigma and raising awareness of one's own behaviour.
Furthermore, thanks to the potential of the AIDS and IST toll-free telephone and the 'United against AIDS' website it was possible to carry out
specific investigations on awareness and behaviors related to the prevention of infectious diseases. 'During
In recent years, behavioral studies have been conducted on specific subgroups of people such as young people,
clients of sex workers, women and, more recently, the survey on the acceptability of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, carried out
as part of the AIDS and IST Toll-free Helpline, it was also implemented through the 'United against AIDS' website and is still
active'.
Furthermore, on the 'United against AIDS' website, a survey is being carried out aimed at evaluating, in people infected with HIV, the impact of the new therapeutic modalities available on the individual quality of life, on the opportunities for at work and on relationships and social stigma. It is possible to participate in the survey by answering the questions in the anonymous questionnaire published on the Uniti contro l'AIDS website.
Photo by Klaus Nielsen from Pexels.
The Di Liegro Foundation has been operating in the field of mental health since 2006, collaborating with public and private institutions in the implementation of projects, activities and research aimed at promoting psychosocial well-being, the prevention of mental distress and the dissemination of culture and knowledge of mental health. Over time, this commitment has focused in particular on youthful distress, organizing thematic training courses, emotional literacy projects and training courses peer education in schools, research activities.
The observation that mental health in the young age group, a crucial moment in development and for the onset of possible developmental difficulties, is in fact a topic of great importance and on which it is necessary to act in terms of information, protection and prevention, was further validated by2018 edition of World Mental Health Day, dedicated to “young people and mental health in a changing world”.
In fact, data from the World Health Organization underline that 10-20% of children and adolescents worldwide suffer from depressive disorders and that neuro-psychiatric pathologies are the main cause of disability in young people in all WHO Regions. One in six adolescents aged 10-19 suffers from mental disorders. Furthermore, 50% problems begin before the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated. And again: suicide is the third cause of death among young people between 15 and 19 years old.
There is a real risk that mental health problems developed during adolescence may continue into adulthood or even become chronic (WHO, 2005).
From these considerations comes the Foundation's commitment to paying particular attention to youth age group. The actions undertaken have the aim of strengthening, through direct and indirect interventions, protective factors so as to prevent the development of mental health problems.
Projects and initiatives of the Di Liegro Foundation for young people:
This year too, for over twenty years, on 12 October, in the Basilica of the Santi XII Apostoli, a Holy Mass in memory of Don Luigi Di Liegro, who passed away in 1997, at the San Raffaele in Milan, at the age of 69. This year the Eucharistic celebration was presided over by Archbishop Giampiero Palmieri, Vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome and animated by the musicians of the Church of San Patrick, in which many people participated: young and old, friends and acquaintances, representatives of associations and religious people, and it was the opportunity to remember the "priest of the poor", or "of charity", as Don Luigi was often called.
In the homily Monsignor Palmieri recalled, among other things, with great effectiveness, an aspect of Don Luigi's life, the experience in Belgium. It was 1958, he was a young thirty-year-old priest, eager to learn first-hand about the conditions of the Italian emigrants who worked in the coal mines, and this was a significant and decisive lesson for the pastoral path of the future Director of the Roman Caritas, which was completed with knowledge of the JOC (the Christian Workers Youth) and its founder. the Belgian Monsignor Joseph Leon Cardijn, appointed Cardinal in the 1965 Consistory precisely for his commitment to the JOC which had now spread throughout the world.
Furthermore, the figure of the "great Roman priest" was remembered at the end of the Eucharistic celebration by Alessandro Romelli, former general secretary of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation, who retraced the moments and salient acts of the priest's pastoral commitment, which taught to be workers of justice and charity, and to be able to concretely address problems to build the common good.
Rai on the Third Network recalled the figure of Don Luigi Di Liegro, in the Blob show, on the day of his death with a video in memory and the testimonies of Don Luigi Ciotti, Founder of Libera, Sergio Zavoli, journalist and former President of Rai, and the Auxiliary Bishop of Rome and former Director of the Roman Caritas, Guerino Di Tora, where Don Di Liegro is interviewed on the issue of the 1991 Pantanella clearance.
This is why remembering the "priest of charity" and asking ourselves about his pastoral testimony is always a help for those who are committed to overcoming the inequalities that are increasingly present in the Roman reality. In the events that life reserves for each of us, there are complex situations, such as uncertainty and fear of the future, moral degradation and widespread social discomfort, and in the face of new poverty, knowing the figure of Don Luigi Di Liegro can help us understand how to overcome the difficulties that many people, men and women, encounter on a daily basis.
"Thinking" about how he managed to address the issues, which still today represent a source of tension in large urban communities, and Rome is an example, means talking about immigrants, homeless people, the homeless, terminally ill AIDS patients, worn out, unemployed and today those whose living conditions have been radically changed by the pandemic have been added. It's about undoubtedly fragile people, on whom Di Liegro in his pastoral and charitable commitment lavished his energies to find solutions, restoring hope and dignity to those who are considered the last, and as Pope Francis calls them, the discarded of society.
“Christian commitment and territoriality” in the Diocesan Conference of February 1974, commonly defined as “the conference on the evils of Rome”, were the fundamental themes addressed by over 5,000 participants and approximately 550 interventions, involving the entire Roman community, where Don Di Liegro was a protagonist and animator, subsequently promoting the birth of the Diocesan Caritas of Rome of which he was the founder and first director. It is no coincidence that the Roman Caritas, in over 40 years of existence, is considered a fundamental pillar in the capital for helping the less fortunate.
In this sense the testimony and priestly action of Don Luigi Di Liegro, inspired by great evangelical sentiments, towards those who found themselves in need and suffering, became an example not only in the Christian community, but in civil society, in the institutions, in the forces social and cultural. This is why we remember: he was "the priest of charity", an example that lives in the memory and works of those who knew him and those who heard about him.
In this time a group of friends of the founder of Caritas of Rome, including some from the Parish of San Leone I al Prenestino, believe it is right to start a collection of testimonies on Don Luigi Di Liegro, and if possible hypothesize the canonical procedure of the Causes of Saints.
Finally, it is necessary to remember that Don Luigi was born in Gaeta on 16 October 1928. It comes naturally to remember his 93rd birthday, because his spirit is always in the hearts of many people and his teaching is very timely, even in moments that seem hopeless.
Luciano Di Pietrantonio
