The effects of Covid on children and young people, between social distancing, loss of routine, anxiety and uncertainty linked to the disease, up to the fear of parents and the difficulties generated by distance learning have made it necessary to intervene on the emotional and social sphere of students, especially on those in middle school classes, who started secondary school shortly before the start of the pandemic.
The project is based on the approach ofpeer education, an effective strategy for preventing and promoting mental health. By involving students, teachers and psychologists, the goal is improve the psychophysical and relational well-being of children, enhancing self-esteem, confidence and sense of security. Peer education, which involves the horizontal transmission of knowledge within a group, then promotes exchange between classmates, offering support between peers.
Each class develops a path during 10 group meetings lasting 2 hours each, scheduled 2 weeks apart.
The focus is on development of emotional and social skills such as the knowledge and regulation of emotions, the ability to take on the other's point of view, empathy, self-efficacy, assertive communication, which are the basis of functional and inclusive inter-personal relationships.
The practical approach, with activities such as role-playing, focus-groups and the use of mindfulness techniques, is integrated with cognitive reflection to promote group cohesion and psychosocial well-being.
Thanks to the positive relational climate built, the children deal with issues such as body acceptance, sexual orientation, sharing some complex life experiences, difficult communication with the adult world and perceived judgement, self-esteem and valorisation. of himself.
"Ognuno con il proprio passo. Diversi tutti insieme" è il titolo del confronto sulla scuola inclusiva dopo due anni di pandemia, in programma il 10 maggio dalle 15 alle 19, presso la Fondazione Di Liegro. L'evento è dedicato alla memoria di Simonetta Caravita.
Il pomeriggio di "Ognuno con il proprio passo. Diversi tutti insieme" sarà diviso in due parti. Nella prima si svolgerà un confronto su realtà ed esperienze dirette impegnate a Roma per l'inclusione scolastica e giovanile, con Marialetizia Nespica e Marilina Casanova ( Casal Bruciato), Alessandro Romelli (Ostia), Marta Zammuto (Fondazione Don Luigi Di Liegro) e Massimo Vallati (Calcio Sociale Corviale).
La seconda sessione sarà una tavola rotonda su cosa si può fare affinché la scuola sia sempre più inclusiva dopo due anni che hanno messo a dura prova l'intero sistema. Interverranno Anna Maria Ajello (Ordinario di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e Socializzazione), Danilo Casertano (Associazione Manes), Luigina Di Liegro (Fondazione Don Luigi Di Liegro), Marco Rossi-Doria (Presidente della Fondazione “Con i bambini”), Marilena Novelli (già direttore regionale dell’USR Lazio) e Augusto Venanzetti (Rete Scuolemigranti).
L'evento sarà trasmesso in diretta streaming. For information.
"Simonetta Caravita - ha ricordato Marco Rossi-Doria, in occasione della sua scomparsa, nel 2021 - è stata per molti decenni il punto di riferimento delle politiche scolastiche inclusive nell’area romana. Per venticinque anni è stata dirigente scolastica nella Scuola Media Statale 'Luigi di Liegro', a Casal Bruciato, e poi del IV Centro Territoriale Permanente di Roma. Quando Jaques Delors avviò l’idea europea di una scuola di seconda occasione per chi aveva abbandonato la scuola, Simonetta è stata all’avanguardia nel lavorare per la scuola di II occasione nelle periferie romane. È in questa veste che in tanti/e, impegnati sullo stesso fronte in ogni parte d’Italia, l’abbiamo conosciuta per la sua dedizione e capacità".
"È stata coordinatrice del Gruppo di lavoro sull’Educazione degli Adulti dell’USR del Lazio. Anche a livello nazionale ha partecipato al laborioso avvio dei CPIA. Impegnata nell’associazione delle scuole autonome, ha creduto nell’autonomia delle scuole a maggior ragione dove dovevano essere più flessibili e innovative per raggiungere tutti/e e ciascuno/a. Nel cuore e nella mente - ha concluso Marco Rossi-Doria - Simonetta Caravita ha avuto per lunghi decenni la lotta alla povertà educativa e ha lavorato per creare e manutenere comunità educanti ben prima che se ne parlasse".
The psychological well-being conditions of 14-19 year olds have worsened in 2021. This is what emerges from Wellbeing and Health Report (BES) 2021, presented by Istat. The BES project has led the country to have a continuously evolving system of measures of real progress and allows us to give timely and collective answers to the simple and at the same time very difficult question: "How is life in Italy?" ?”. Thanks to the report, explained the president of Istat, Gian Carlo Blangiardo, it is possible highlight the areas where inequalities occur And identify the most disadvantaged groups, directing the demand on solid evidence of targeted policies.
Many gaps have remained, or even widened: from life expectancy at birth to avoidable mortality, from municipal spending on culture to the impact of forest fires and illegal building, which is stronger in the southern regions.
The pandemic has mostly resulted in setbacks in the well-being of the female population: for example, in levels of psychological well-being and employment, especially for mothers with young children.
But they were even children, adolescents and very young people pay a very high price to the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by measures to combat infections. It is they who require, today and in the years to come, the utmost attention from politicians.
During the pandemic years, young people between 14 and 19 are the only ones who have known a significant deterioration in life satisfaction, with the percentage of very satisfied people moving from 56.9% in 2019 to 52.3% in 2021.
If dissatisfied adolescents with a low mental health score in 2019 were 3.2% of the total, in 2021 this percentage has doubled (6.2%). These are approximately 220 thousand children between 14 and 19 years old who declare themselves dissatisfied with their lives and find themselves, at the same time, in a condition of poor psychological well-being.
On the other hand, the same phenomena of bullying, violence and vandalism by very young people, which have occupied the news in recent months, are extreme manifestations of widespread and perhaps not transitory suffering and restlessness.
In this same age group, the sedentary lifestyle it went from 18.6 to 20.9%, given the impossibility for many to continuously carry out sporting activities. And, among 14-17 year olds, they have been observed high shares of alcohol consumers at risk of damaging their psychological well-being (23,6%).
Among young people, for whom peer relationships are of the utmost importance for harmonious development, it is satisfaction with relationships with friends also tangibly decreased. The share of very satisfied 14-19 year olds has lost 6.5 points in two years. Between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of young people aged 14-24 who say they meet up with friends at least once a week fell from 89.8% to 73.8%. In this age group, the percentage of those who declared themselves very satisfied with their family relationships also decreased (-4 points).
It is not difficult to understand the reasons for this disaffection: in 2021, the continuation of the difficulties for parents and children in sharing domestic spaces also for working and attending lessons, the reduced possibilities of hanging out with fellow students due to the alternation of teaching in presence and at a distance for a good part of the school or academic year, the limitations in the possibility of practicing sporting and recreational activities have contributed to a sort of desertification of affections, which has eroded the foundations of youth satisfaction.
Volunteering activity, which remained stable in the first year of the pandemic: in 2021 recorded a contraction of almost 5 points among young people aged 14-19. Between 2019 and 2021, social participation also decreases significantly, by around 11 points, in the 14-24 age group.
Our country, on the eve of the pandemic, had not yet recovered the profound losses in terms of youth employment rate linked to the economic recession and had increased the distance from the European average. In 2019 in Italy the employment rate of young people aged 25-34 continued to remain the lowest of all European countries, with a particularly wide gap for girls. With the arrival of the pandemic, the situation of young people on the job market has further deteriorated, especially for women, whose employment rate has suffered the greatest losses.
Italy has a sad record in Europe for the number of young people between 15 and 29 who are no longer included in a school or training course or even engaged in a working activity, known as NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).
Another critical factor is represented by thehigh number of early dropouts: the share of young people aged 18-24 who leave the education and training system without having obtained a diploma or qualification, also called Early Leavers from Education and Training (ELET) in 2021 is equal to 12.7% in Italy, the highest value than that set as the maximum limit at European level (10%), already reached on average by the EU.
For the most educated and qualified young people, Italy does not yet offer adequate opportunities. And so, despite the limitations on mobility imposed during the first year of the pandemic, and the uncertainty that characterized 2020, the emigration abroad of young Italian graduates has intensified compared to 2019.
Di Liegro Foundation: SOS Youth. Old, new and brand new addictions
Photo by Flávio Santos from Pexels.com
Teenagers and Covid. In the United States, in the first six months of 2021, due to the pandemic and the lockdown, psychiatric hospitals report an increase45% increase in the number of cases of self-harm and suicide attempts up to 17 years old compared to the same period in 2020. In Italy the National Council of the Order of Psychologists (Cnop), last October in a report, with responses from 5,621 specialists, found that patients under 18 years of age on therapy increased 31%. It is the synthesis of a focus of the Freud Institute of Milan which aims to address students' problems in an adequate manner.
"The signs are strong: anxiety, depression, self-harm. After these two years of pandemic, we need to intercept the
general discomfort - explained director Daniele Nappo - With post-Covid, teenagers are fighting a very complex period and condition in their lives, with repercussions for their mental health; Unfortunately, psychological support, prevention and listening were talked about little before and are still talked about little today. The signs of widespread worsening are clear and shared but the alarm seems to have gone unheeded."
The pandemic has produced a general decline in the mental health of boys and girls, with consequences for all adolescents between 12 and 18 years - it is underlined in the analysis - Those who had no worries had to face phases of
confusion and discomfort due to the limitations of sociality; for those who were already in a critical condition the rates decreased
possibility of asking for support, and the risk of not being able to intercept and partly manage requests for help is increased for the health and social system.
Throughout Italy, hospitals have been forced to increase the number of beds in child neuropsychiatry departments to receive a number of people that has never been seen in recent years.
Di Liegro Foundation: Young people and Youth Work
Photo by Gauthier Pierre from Pexel
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
On the occasion of the conference Bridge the gap. Intervention tools for the well-being and mental health of young people we spoke to some Youth Workers, who told us their story.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)
The conference "Bridging the gap. Intervention tools for the well-being and mental health of young people" is scheduled for Friday 18 February 2022, from 9am to 1pm, at the Conference Hall - IndustrIe fluvialI, in via del Porto fluviale 35, Rome
>>> Fill out the form to participate in the conference: https://bit.ly/Colmare-il-gap
PLAN
9.00 WORK OPENING
Luigina Di Liegro - General Secretary of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation
GREETINGS AND INTERVENTIONS FROM THE AUTHORITIES
Lucia Abbinante - General Director of the National Youth Agency
Fabrizio Starace - Coordinator of the Mental Health Technical Table of the Ministry of Health
Rodolfo Lena - President of the VII Commission on Health, social policies, socio-health integration, welfare of the Lazio Region
Barbara Funari - Councilor for Social Policies and Health, Municipality of Rome
Alessandra Aluigi - Councilor for Social Policies, Rome Municipality VIII
FIRST SESSION
YOUNG PEOPLE'S MENTAL HEALTH: RESPONDING TO THE EMERGENCY
Chair: Giuseppe Ducci - Mental Health Department ASL Roma1
Rethinking services for adolescence
Gianluigi Di Cesare - UOC Prevention and Early Interventions for Mental Health, ASL Roma1
Youth Work: profiles, areas and connection strategies
Stefania Leone - Department of Political Sciences and Communication, University of Salerno
The “YouProMe” project: strategic objectives and results
Anna Maria Palmieri - Don Luigi Di Liegro Foundation onlus
11.00 am COFFEE BREAK
By Integrated Social Cooperative IL GRANDE CARRO
SECOND SESSION
THE ROLE OF YOUTH WORK: EXPERIENCES AND PRACTICES IN EUROPE
Chair: Antonio Maone - Mental Health Department ASL Roma1
The importance of youth workers in promoting the well-being of young people -Eric Kota (IASIS NGO)
A collaborative approach to supporting young people's mental health - Stacey Robinson (Merseyside Expanding Horizons)
New professional profiles to support children and young people with mental health problems - Maria Toia (Centre for the Promotion of Lifelong Learning - Centrul Pentru Promovarea Invatarii Permanente
Youth Work: choices and future prospects - Manuela Prina (European Training Foundation)
1.00 pm CLOSURE OF WORK
REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION
Participation in the conference is free.
Online registration at the link: https://bit.ly/Colmare-il-gap
Simultaneous translation of the interventions is foreseen.
The certificate of participation will be issued.
Information: Tel. 3403950678 – 3388016218
To guarantee the safety of participants and compliance with Covid regulations it is necessary to register, be in possession of the REINFORCED GREEN PASS and wear the FFP2 mask.
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
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.
