These are dramatic numbers that emerged last week during the XXII national congress of the Italian Society of NeuroPsychoPharmacology. In fact, it has been estimated that up to one million new cases of mental distress could emerge in the coming months due to the pandemic.
A wave that affects both those who have had direct experience with COVID-19 and those experiencing the consequences of the measures to contain the infection. The incidence of depressive symptoms in those who have come into contact with the virus shows a higher probability of up to 32% (10% for those who have suffered bereavement due to the pandemic), so much so that it is estimated that up to 800 thousand new cases of depression.
To these could be added 150 thousand new cases of depression caused by unemployment. In fact, the risk doubles in those with an income of less than 15 thousand euros per year and triples in those who are unemployed.
The discomfort manifests itself with anxiety or insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder (for those who have been infected) and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The categories most at risk are women (more predisposed to depression and more affected by the social and work-related repercussions), young people (who have seen their social life change and are suffering from the effects of the crisis on employment) and the elderly (more fragile in the face of contagions and mental disorders).
This is why we are now talking about syndemic, that is, the presence and health consequences of an interaction between disease and social, environmental or economic factors. In the context of COVID-19, conditions of health, emotional and social fragility do not add up, but exponentially multiply their negative consequences on the psychophysical well-being of the population.
Even during the lockdown and the measures to contain the virus, the Di Liegro Foundation has always kept the SOSS-Orientation and Social Support Service. By calling 06 6792669 or writing to supportsociale@fondazionediliegro.it, people who experience mental distress and their family members can obtain listening and information on access to mental health services and resources present in the Rome area.
Photo by Alan Cabello from Pexels
Il XIV corso di formazione della Fondazione Di Liegro "Dall’isolamento alla resilienza" si è concluso con un’ampia panoramica condotta dal dottor Michele Di Nunzio, psichiatra psicoterapeuta e criminologo, sul tema "Il ruolo del volontariato: riflessioni, metodologie, esperienze". Un racconto in prima persona, da un operatore che considera il volontariato un contributo “di fondamentale importanza” nel campo della salute mentale.
Punto di partenza: nell’esperienza del volontario fare del bene agli altri è un effetto secondario, successivo all’azione prioritaria che è quella di fare del bene a se stessi. Io sto facendo qualcosa che, facendomi sentire meglio, accrescendo la qualità della mia vita, mi metterà in condizione di produrre relazioni propositive, costruttive, funzionali anche per l’altro.
La mia serenità è fondamentale. Nei momenti di malumore mi è utile il ricordo, il collegamento con le ragioni che mi hanno condotto a questa scelta.
Il volontario, come chiunque operi in un settore ad alto impatto emotivo come il volontariato e sia per questo molto esposto al logoramento, deve mettere in conto la necessità di fare costantemente la "manutenzione di se stesso", che significa tornare a capire "quello che faccio e perché lo faccio".
Questa azione di consapevolezza ha un nome: meta-cognizione. Si può sviluppare con qualche suggerimento: tenere un diario, leggere molto, ascoltare molto, accogliere ogni occasione ludico-ricreativa che includa una componente emotiva, conoscitiva, razionale, intellettuale. In questo, cinema e teatro sono preziosi.
Può capitare spesso che un volontario della salute mentale incontri persone scontrose, diffidenti, addirittura ostili. L’altro che ci tratta male è qualcuno che ci percepisce come più potente, ha paura di noi e pertanto si difende. Le chiavi per risolvere questo tipo di situazione sono l’umiltà, l’ascolto, la comprensione, l’umana curiosità. Chiavi che sono preziose anche quando l’altro che incontriamo ha scelto di non vivere, di chiudersi in se stesso, come risposta alle paure non risolte che nella stragrande maggioranza dei casi sono all’origine del disagio psichico.
La persona di cui il volontario si prende cura ha necessariamente una ‘diagnosi’, che però non la descrive nella sua interezza. Bisognerà farsi raccontare la sua vita, prima dagli operatori poi da lei stessa, quando vorrà, se vorrà, come vorrà.
Uno dei cimenti maggiori nei quali il volontario può applicarsi è mediare tra le antiche paure tuttora cogenti e la bontà del mondo, che pure esiste. Saranno le piccole cose che rappresentano per tutti il tessuto della vita, alle quali diamo poca importanza ma che riempiono gran parte del nostro tempo, a favorire la riapertura al mondo.
Il volontario è quindi 'ingenuo', fa domande, svela cose che gli operatori nella loro routine hanno perso di vista. La sua ‘sprovvedutezza’ come d’altra parte la diversità del suo bagaglio lavorativo e professionale sono contributi importanti per il settore della salute mentale.
E infine c’è la ‘valorialità’, perché i valori, gli ideali qualificano enormemente la nostra esistenza. Ed è difficile che il volontario sia arrivato a questa scelta senza aver avuto una formazione valoriale.
Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels.
“La resilienza come strumento di salute mentale” è il titolo del quarto appuntamento del corso di formazione "Volunteers and families online for mental health", relatore lo psichiatra José Mannu.
La "resilienza" non è un termine che nasce in ambito psichiatrico - ha spiegato Mannu nel corso del suo recente intervento al Màt Modena, Settimana della Salute Mentale - ma proviene dall’ingegneria, e indica la capacità di un materiale di assorbire energia elasticamente, quando sottoposto a un carico o a un urto, prima di giungere a rottura.
Per comprendere l’utilizzo della parola resilienza nell’ambito della salute mentale, è opportuno ripercorrere la storia della psichiatria. Nel ‘700 Philippe Pinel suggerisce che i folli siano considerati persone e che la follia sia solo follia parziale. Il folle ha dunque una parte sana, che deve essere liberata dalla malattia, attraverso il “trattamento morale”. Cioè sviluppare la parte sana attraverso l’educazione, la persuasione e la disciplina dell’individuo. Nascono così i manicomi.
Durante la seconda Guerra Mondiale, Wilfred Bion suggerisce di allearsi con la parte sana per combattere insieme quella malata. Questa alleanza avviene nella comunità, un luogo dove la follia potesse esprimersi liberamente, e non come in manicomio.
Con l'esperimento di comunità realizzato a Gorizia, negli anni ’60 Franco Basaglia sostiene che l'esistenza stessa di un luogo in cui la follia possa esprimersi causa una cronicizzazione della malattia. Per questo, secondo Basaglia, la cura non può avvenire in un luogo, ma nel territorio dove una persona vive. Si tratta di un cambiamento culturale nella psichiatria, una vera rivoluzione.
All’alba degli anni 2000, la Teoria della Capacità impone una nuova visione della “parte sana”, che si esprime attraverso la capacità e il funzionamento della persona. Il benessere individuale nasce dalla relazione. Diventa dunque necessario vedere dove le persone sono in grado di agire, dove “funzionano”, cioè la reale opportunità di intraprendere un'attività e la reale voglia di essere ciò che si vuole essere.
Tornando alla resilienza, possiamo dire che questa esplora i modi in cui gestire una natura (o un tessuto economico/sociale) che non è in equilibrio. Secondo la definizione di Michael Ungar, “Più che un set di caratteristiche individuali, sono le strutture intorno alla persona, i servizi che la persona riceve, il modo in cui è strutturata la sanità, tutti questi si combinano con le caratteristiche della persona che permettono di far fronte alle avversità che affrontano e trovare strade verso la resilienza”.
Before analyzing social relations, it is good to deal with the new paradigm. But how should this “new” be constructed? It is the question from which the philosopher will start Pierangelo Di Vittorio, in the third appointment of the training course “Volunteers and families online for mental health”, scheduled for Saturday 24 October, at the Di Liegro Foundation.
The answer - according to Di Vittorio - is in putting together pieces of the past, in the form of cultural archives, and pieces of the present, that is, diagnoses on the problems and tensions that run through current affairs. A type of mosaic, made up of pieces on which Di Vittorio has been working for some time, collected starting from the question of social relations.
And it is like in a mosaic that the themes of the meeting will be composed, between the philosopher Walter Benjamin and the present which has “the power of the keys over the rooms of the past” and the writer and philosopher Michel Foucault, who has dealt with madness since his doctoral thesis "History of madness in the classical age" and invited us to question ourselves precisely on madness, because "from man to true man, the road passes through the mad man" .
During the meeting we will inevitably talk about Franco Basaglia (with whom Pierangelo Di Vittorio came into indirect contact when after graduating he carried out his civil service at the Mental Health Department of Trieste) and of his decision to undertake the path of invention and caring for the social bond. Read about it in this regard monograph "Franco Basaglia", written with Mario Colucci, released in 2001 and recently re-edited.
“Began in the name of a love for knowledge, in the name of philosophy, Basaglia's experience developed as a loving relationship towards patients, to finally be realized in the construction of another way of living together. A more just and fruitful common life – Di Vittorio wrote in the magazine “Either/Or” in 2017 – for which Italian society and the entire world still bear the responsibility and active hope”.
On 21 September in Modena, as part of Màt, Mental Health Week, the Di Liegro Foundation is organizing the seminar entitled “Empathy and resilience in mental health”, rapporteur the psychiatrist José Mannu.
The project will be presented during the seminar “Volunteers and families networking for mental health” of the Di Liegro Foundation, a set of activities that intend to create and develop a support network for people with mental health problems and their families, with the aim of promoting their social inclusion, allowing the implementation of a recovery path and spreading greater knowledge and awareness of ways to deal with mental distress.
The Màt-Mental Health Week is the event promoted by the Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions of the Modena AUSL. Seven days of debates, conferences, artistic and cultural events open to all citizens, located in different areas of Modena and the province, with the aim of raising awareness in the area on mental health issues and implementing the fight against the prejudice and stigma that burden on those suffering from mental distress.
The seminar “Empathy and resilience in Mental Health” will be broadcast in live streaming on the Màt website and on the channels Facebook And YouTube of the event, starting from 3pm on Wednesday 21 October.
The anniversary of October 10, World Mental Health Day, falls in a period in which our daily lives have been significantly changed by the pandemic.
The last few months have brought great pressure:
And with the rise in infections, uncertainty about the future risks weakening the emotional recovery after the easing of social distancing measures.
Experience from other humanitarian emergencies tells us that the need for psychosocial support will increase substantially in the coming months and years. Investment nationally and internationally in mental health programs (which have already suffered from years of chronic underfunding) is now more important than ever.
That's why the goal of the campaign for World Mental Health Day 2020 is to increase investment in mental health.
In fact, it is one of the most neglected areas of public health. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1 billion people live with a mental disorder, 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol, and one person dies every 40 seconds from suicide. In low- and middle-income countries, more than 75% people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment, while stigma and discrimination are still widespread. All this, before the pandemic.
WHO highlights how countries spend on average only 2% of their health budgets on mental health. In Italy, for example, the figure is equal to 3.2 %, lower than the European average which is just above 4%. To understand the importance of greater investments in this area, the World Health Organization recalls that for every dollar invested in large-scale treatment for common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, there is a return of 5 dollars in improved health and productivity.
"World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for the world to come together and begin to remedy the historic neglect of mental health – said the WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, presenting the initiative – If we do not make commitments serious efforts to increase investment now, the clinical, social and economic consequences will be far-reaching."
The 14th edition of the training course kicks off on October 3rd "Volunteers and families online for mental health", This year's theme is "From isolation to resilience. The role of volunteering". For fifteen years, volunteer training and orientation on mental health have in fact been the main vocation of the Don Luigi Di Liegro Foundation.
Register to participate in the training course
The pandemic has shaken the foundations of our daily life: health emergency, economic crisis and social problems have determined and exacerbated tensions whose future developments we do not know. Resilience has thus become an indispensable ability to adapt to guarantee quality of life and protect mental health put to the test by these latest events.
Among the "groups" in difficulty and about which little is said is that of volunteering. The pandemic crisis has led to the closure of several third sector organizations and the interruption of their activity risks depriving the community of the services offered so far. Yet, today more than ever, the contribution of volunteers who embody and bear witness to an indispensable value in the reality of their actions is indispensable: the gift.
A society without the culture of giving is destined to ignore the value of man which instead finds exaltation in the civil practice of the spirit of volunteering. Volunteering is one of the noble tools available especially to young people to contribute to the construction of a civil society. Learning to give yourself to others will allow those who tomorrow will be a doctor, a worker, a lawyer to live their experiences with a different, more supportive spirit. This is the value of a gift and it is this wealth that motivates volunteers to make sacrifices with a light heart.
The lessons of the course "From isolation to resilience. The role of volunteering" will be held on Saturday, from 10.30 to 12.30, at the headquarters of the Di Liegro Foundation, in via Ostiense 106, in Rome (Metro B stop Garbatella).
It will be possible to participate both in person, while places are available, and on a digital platform.
Register to participate in the training course
FIRST MEETING – 3 OCTOBER 2020
VHELP AND COMMUNITY: STARTING AGAIN FROM THE CRISIS
Luigina Di Liegro, General Secretary of the Di Liegro Foundation
Andrea Volterrani, Sociologist, researcher and teacher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata
SECOND MEETING – 17 OCTOBER 2020
HOW ARE YOU? DISTANCING, ISOLATION AND SOLITUDE
Massimiliano Aragona, psychiatrist and philosopher
THIRD MEETING – 24 OCTOBER 2020
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, A NEW PARADIGM
Pierangelo Di Vittorio, philosopher and writer
FOURTH MEETING – 7 NOVEMBER 2020
RESILIENCE AS A MENTAL HEALTH TOOL
Jose Mannu, psychiatrist
FIFTH MEETING – 21 NOVEMBER 2020
STRESS AND TRAUMA, REBORN FROM DISCOMFORT
Silvia Pepe, psychologist and psychotherapist at the Institute of Relational Psychotherapy
SIXTH MEETING - 28 NOVEMBER 2020
ADDICTIONS AND LIFESTYLES DURING THE PANDEMIC
Giuseppe Ducci, Director of DSM ASL Roma1
Alessandro Vento, psychiatrist, CSM ASL Roma2
SEVENTH MEETING – 5 DECEMBER 2020
THE ROLE OF THE VOLUNTEER. REFLECTIONS, METHODOLOGIES, EXPERIENCES
Michele Di Nunzio, UOC SPDC psychiatrist San Filippo Neri
The participation fee for the course is €35, for university students €20.
The payment takes place in the form of a donation to the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation and is therefore deductible from the tax return. Payment can be made via:
Register to participate in the training course
Substance addictions and pathological behavioral addictions in young people represent a social emergency. The spread and consumption of ever new drugs, but also the abuse of the internet or television, pathological gambling, compulsive shopping or some eating disorders (just to give a few examples) require information and training actions for families, social and health workers, educators and citizens, capable of preventing discomfort.
For years the Don Luigi Di Liegro Onlus International Foundation has been involved in the field of mental health and collaborates with the health and social services of Rome and Lazio to promote recovery and social inclusion paths for people with mental health problems and their families. This commitment has focused over time on youth hardship, with thematic training courses, emotional literacy projects, peer education courses in schools and research activities.
The Di Liegro Foundation and theAddictions Observatory Association have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening their activities, which will take place at the Foundation's headquarters.
The collaboration includes information and mental health promotion actions through training projects; cultural and social initiatives, organization of exhibitions, seminars, conferences, screenings, debates and courses; research and data collection activities regarding the use/abuse of substances and addictive behaviors, for the purpose of popular scientific publications on the topic.
“The interaction with the Di Liegro Foundation – explained the president of the Observatory on Addictions, Alessandro E. Vento – helps us consolidate the network of institutional relationships. We also signed the agreement for the authoritativeness and seriousness of the contents carried out by the Foundation and their important initiatives open to users of mental health services, their families and people from civil society".
“Mental health in the young age group, a crucial moment in development and for the onset of possible difficulties in emotional development, is a topic of great importance – he commented Luigina Di Liegro, general secretary of the Foundation – And it makes it necessary to act in terms of information, protection and prevention of discomfort. For this reason, we contribute with determination to the improvement of the NPS Finder created by the Addictions Observatory.
"Creating a community of citizens". Luigina Di Liegro's telephone intervention on "L'Italia in diretta", on Radio 1, represented an opportunity to take stock of the activities of the Di Liegro Foundation in the field of mental distress. Activities that never stopped, not even during the months of lockdown, proving even more important in a moment of physical and social isolation
It remained operational every day SOSS, Orientation and Social Support Service, which offers assistance to the families of people with mental health problems, via email, telephone and in person (with an appointment). The service supports and seeks solutions to existing problems by indicating and directing towards the public socio-health facilities with which the Foundation has collaborated closely since its inception.
Often, mental distress is removed or addressed when it is chronic. Instead, explained Luigina Di Liegro, it is important to help families identify the problem before it is too late and resort to existing services active in the area.
In recent years, the Foundation has worked to create a community of citizens who, thanks also to its training courses for volunteers, learn to understand and deal with mental distress, creating a relationship with the person who experiences this reality. The following are also an important part of the support network art therapy workshops And self-help groups.
The general secretary then recalled the work of Don Luigi Di Liegro, his uncle, in carrying forward the values of solidarity, animated by the hope and faith that was very deep in him, but which he did not ask others to have. The work of Don Luigi, founder of Caritas of Rome, remains fundamental in supporting the poor and marginalized of the capital and has left an indelible legacy in the world of local volunteering.
Listen to the interview with Luigina Di Liegro
The project was based on the belief that a more welcoming and inclusive society responds more effectively to the many critical issues arising from mental distress. Work, in this sense, represents a fundamental piece in everyone's life and an essential step towards building an autonomous and more fulfilling life.
Over the two years of the project's life, the people involved were included in modular paths which included various actions including: orientation and assessment of skills; empowerment interventions, self-promotion, social inclusion; accompaniment, tutoring and exploration of training and work opportunities; psychological support; family support and counseling.
An individual project was developed for each person taken care of, starting from each person's skills and resources. Comparison and dialogue within professionalizing and expressive workshops was one of the strong elements of the project.
Over 60% of the participants took part in training internships, which in some cases were transformed into actual employment contracts.
From the experience of the "Getting in motion" project, various initiatives on workplace inclusion have arisen over time, also thanks to information and awareness-raising actions in the public and private world on mental health problems.
