They are called DAT, Advance Treatment Provisions and for citizens it means the possibility, defined by a 2017 national law, to express the acceptance or refusal of certain health treatments. Since the law was promulgated, the Modena Local Health Authority together with the citizens of Mixed consultative committee of the Modena Health District, created a working group to facilitate the use of this important tool, from which an information brochure was born. In response to a regulatory update, the brochure has been updated with new contents which will be presented during the conference ‘Advance Treatment Provisions, knowing to choose’ scheduled on March 29 in the Gallerie Europa, Piazza Grande 17, from 5pm to 7pm: speakers will be the mayor of Modena Gian Carlo Muzzarelli, the socio-health director of the Modena local health authority Andrea Fabbo, the director of the Modena health district Andrea Spanò, the president of the mixed consultative committee intercompany Luciano Sighinolfi and to follow there will be contributions from experts such as Eleonora De Marco vice-president of the Modena Foundation, the councilors of the Municipality of Modena Ludovica Carla Ferrari and Roberta Pinelli, the vice-president of the Mixed Consultative Committee of Modena Ivonne Pavignani, the general practitioner of the Modena District Cristina Poppi, the demographic services consultant of the Municipality of Modena Marilena Vincetti.
In the information brochurewhich will be presented during the conference, contains all the information on the DAT developed by the working group: what Advance Treatment Declarations are, which health treatments can be indicated, how to express one’s will (among the methods there is private writing simple which is delivered to the civil status office of the municipality of residence) and what does it consist of National register of DATsthe new legislation that came into force in 2020. Thanks to the Registry, a national database was created that collects and stores the DATs of all those who have deposited them: in this way, if necessary, a doctor can immediately access the Bank data and know what the patient’s wishes are.
A topic of great interest for citizens considering that in the Municipality of Modena the DATs, from their institution to 29 February 2024, are 1.441 and the largest age group is 31 to 65 for both genders.
The Modena Health District together with the citizens of the Joint Consultative Committee (the body, composed largely of citizens but also of representatives of the Health Authority, which has tasks of verification, support, proposal on health services) and the Municipality of Modena conducts important work in monitoring the legislation and updating information materials to make this tool more understandable and accessible to citizens.
The booklet can be found at the civil registry offices of the demographic services and on the website of the Municipality of Modena (https://www.comune.modena.it/dat).
“The initiative of the Mixed Consultative Committee of the Modena District had as its primary aim that of facilitating knowledge of the national regulations that have come into force, through translation work with and for citizens in an accessible language, which would enable the population to be able to knowingly choose whether to take advantage of the Advance Provisions of Treatment – comments the Director of the Modena Health District Andrea Spanò – the DAT are the document with which the person, of age and capable, expresses his/her will regarding the health treatments that he/she wants or does not want to be practiced if he/she finds himself/herself in a situation in which he/she cannot give/deny his/her consent.
In partnership with the Municipality of Modena, after a long in-depth work, an update of the brochure was created, already produced in 2019, containing a series of questions/answers and a dedicated glossary which were deemed useful for citizens to understand what are the DATs and, above all, where and why to draw them up”.