 Revision of the Italian psychiatric reform: North/South differences and future strategiesPaola Bollini, Michael Reich and Giovanni Muscettola Social Science & Medicine, 1988, vol. 27, issue 12, 1327-1335 Abstract: The Italian psychiatric reform of 1978 shifted the care of the mentally ill from the asylum to the community, by prohibiting new admissions to asylums and providing new community-oriented services. Ten years later, the Italian government is reviewing the effects of the psychiatric reform and is considering drastic revisions of the Law. However, few data are available to evaluate the impact of the new legislation on a national basis. The present cross-sectional study, conducted in North-Central and Southern Italy, showed that a more socially disadvantaged patient population was treated in Southern Italian mental health services. In both geographic regions, the probability of being currently treated in mental hospitals as compared to community services was increased by poor education, being unmarried, having a schizophrenia or organic diagnosis, a long psychiatric history, a long previous hospitalization, or a poor prognosis. However, a long psychiatric history was the main factor associated with current mental hospital treatment in Southern Italy but not in the North-Center, thus suggesting that the psychiatric reform has had different impacts on Northern and Southern mental hospitals. The inadequate provision of community-oriented services in Southern Italy regions, and the presence of private mental hospitals that are publicly reimbursed, contribute importantly to the unsatisfactory situation of mental health care delivery in Southern Italy. The reinstitutionalization of mental patients is currently proposed by some political parties in Italy. This article argues that new legislation must address the provision of effective community services in the South, better definition of the role of the private sector, and the creation of an effective information system to monitor the implementation of the proposed measures. Keywords: Italian; mental; health; reform; psychiatric; services; utilization; mental; health; policy; implementation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:27:y:1988:i:12:p:1327-1335 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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