A red writing, in large letters, stands out on the wall of a building, in front of Pavilion M of the former district of the San Giovanni Psychiatric Hospital, in Trieste.
An inscription painted by young operators, who came here from all over Italy and the world, in the years of the “Basagliana Revolution”, to contribute with their enthusiasm, with their action to bring about the historical change that led to the closure of mental asylums in Italy, the first and only country ever.
They were also here to see, to know, to understand, to learn. And to export the Model. That Model.
The gesture of Franco Basaglia – and of all those who shared his ideal project (of medical/social/political intervention) – was a response.
A concrete response to the “Need for Truth”.
A concrete response to the “Truth of Need”, to the “Truth of Needs”.
Under that bright writing – Truth is Revolutionary – I am portrayed together with the Founding Members of the Association which was born from the Mental Health Forum, and which was officially established a few months ago. With operational purposes, to impact the complex Italian reality of the psy world.
Every day we read complaints from citizens, family members and people with experience, and (above all?) from operators of all levels, such as doctors, psychiatrists and nurses: they all accuse the very serious shortcomings of Public Health in Italy. Of the almost non-existent network of healthcare services in the area.
And, as far as we are concerned, all those motivated by ethical commitment linked to the “Mental Health” model – possible followers of Franco Basaglia – denounce the involutionary crisis in/of the management of Mental Health Departments, which have almost reached collapse.
The analyzes are precise, detailed, full of data and incontrovertible statistics.
They are formulated with technical, specialist words, based on experienced knowledge, the result of years of enlightened, exemplary implementation practices.
But above all they are formulated with words rich in humanity. Of Presence. Of Recognition of the Other. Of Respect and Listening. So towards people who need care. But perhaps also towards the people who act the Cure.
Yet it seems that all around they fall eluded and unheard.
And the current crisis is raging in the designated places, now reduced to clinics. Chronic residences. Centers similar to small mental asylums. Places of illness for the operators themselves.
People who suffer, who are ill, are denied their rights to health and their rights as citizens – rights which are amply illustrated, starting with the Ordinances and Guidelines expressed by the WHO.
Everything falls on deaf ears.
Everything hits a kind of rubber wall, which appears like Impossibility.
The Denial of Reality, of Needs, is played out in a – hypocritical – misunderstanding of words. In a frontal contrast of interpretations, of subtle distinctions between divergent medical paradigms. In contrary, oppositional positions of the various Psychiatry, real centers of power (business committees?), of which one cannot say.
Almost a sort of public secret. An active Will not to know.
What to do?