Mental health, long neglected and underfunded, "received the final blow with the pandemic and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan pays little attention to it". With the paradox that, "just when mental disorders increase, dedicated health services decrease". Starting from a personnel problem: among the public, the national average is just 3.3 psychologists per 100 thousand inhabitants, with a range that goes from 16 in Valle d'Aosta to 1.3 in Piedmont.
This is what emerges from the "Civic report on health. Citizens' rights and federalism in healthcare", presented by Active Citizenship on May 5th.
The problems reported by citizens to the Integrated Health Protection Project regarding mental health represent 12.8% of reports in the field of local assistance and “show a growing structural deficit in mental health services.” They describe the desperation for managing a situation that has become unsustainable at family level (28%), the poor quality (24%) and the difficulty in accessing public care (20%).
In Italy, 126 Mental Health Departments provide public assistanceand, of which a peak of 27 was recorded in Lombardy, and a total of 1,299 territorial structures, equal to 2.6 per 100 thousand inhabitants: Tuscany recorded the highest value of structures (7.5), followed by Valle d'Aosta (5.7) and Veneto (4.4). As many as 15 Regions are below the national average. As regards staff, Liguria has the best ratio of doctors per inhabitants with 13.8, followed by Tuscany and PA Trento (12.8 each). Also in this case there are 13 Regions that present data lower than the national average (equal to 9): black jersey in Veneto (5.9) and Marche (6). In light of this, the 2022 psychological bonus introduced by Milleproroghe disappointed patient associations "and to many - explains the Report - it seemed like a way to make up for the oversight in the Pnrr". Confirming how much mental health is neglected.
MANIFESTO FOR MENTAL HEALTH: THOSE WHO SUFFER SHOULD BE TREATED IN THEIR COMMUNITY
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