Màt is the largest choral event in Italy dedicated to mental illness. It will be held from 16 to 23 October and will host 100 meetings, insights, shows. An event that will follow in a few days the World Mental Health Day, Sunday 10 October. “It is an important moment to relaunch the public health system in our country and, within it, the mental health care system. Màt’s goal is to overcome the stigma and prejudice linked to mental illness”, he explains. Fabrizio Starace, psychiatrist director of the Festival and of the Department of mental health and pathological addictions of the Azienda Ausl of Modena, as well as a member of the Superior Health Council.
Covid, those suffering from depression risk getting sick more seriously
by Valeria Pini
The epidemic has seen an increase of at least 30% in people with mental and psychiatric disorders. A problem that in an Italy already in difficulty in terms of services and financing is proving to be dramatic. In fact, the pressure on mental health centers is growing, with our country still lagging behind in Europe for the resources allocated to them.
Lessons of rebirth to design the future after the pandemic
by Vittorio Lingiardi
Italy – considered by the WHO a reference point for deinstitutionalisation, the closure of asylums and the activation of a network of territorial services – still presents too many critical issues and people with mental disorders continue to receive inadequate answers: there are about 830 thousand people followed by DSMs, but Istat estimates that more than 3 million adults need care. “The world of mental health has been experiencing a sort of paradox for years: in the face of a growing demand for intervention, there is a slow but progressive reduction in the ability to respond – underlines Starace – For years the demand of people who turn to our services mental health care for support, assistance and intervention exceeds our ability to give appropriate responses by more than 50%. It is as if we went to an emergency room and found it already overwhelmed with stretchers because the ordinary supply is insufficient. This is the a condition that permanently preceded the start of the pandemic: now the problem has become an emergency “.
Panic attacks? Take a deep breath
by Angela Nanni
The analysis of what has happened in recent months offers a decisive, perhaps unrepeatable opportunity to relaunch the public health system in our country and, within it, the mental health care system. “As happened at the end of the 70s with the law 833 and with the law 180 that preceded it, also in this case the objective is the planning and construction of a new welfare of inclusion, taking up and updating the principles of that great season of reforms – continues Starace – The eleventh edition of Màt wants to give substance to a debate that too often remains only theoretical and gives ample space to experiences that enhance the themes of the community, the territory, the home: these are the key words for a significant renewal of the culture and of the assistance offer, for the benefit of people with experience of mental suffering and of service operators. The person, with a unique and unrepeatable name and face, bearer of needs and rights, becomes the protagonist of the own path of care and not passive object of interventions “.
Pandemic, how to help teenagers not to lose hope
by Cinzia Lucchelli
The program
The seminars and conferences will deepen mental health in the various areas: the body, with body-shaming and the resulting mental discomfort; teenagers and school; the work and promotion of a multidisciplinary dialogue. Among the appointments there are also theatrical performances where the actors are precisely the patients. Numerous musical encounters, including a reading that deals with the theme of freedom and individual rights starting from women’s narratives that correspond to three phases in the history of psychiatry. Six exhibitions are proposed, from photographic to artistic ones, while the “Meglio Matti che Corti” short film competition, in its seventh edition, will investigate the world of mental health and the stories of those who experience it.
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