Thirty-Five Years of Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Italy

Abstract:

There is no mental health without respect for the dignity of mental patients on an equal basis with all other citizens. Rehabilitation is no exception, and deinstitutionalization is its necessary prerequisite. Italy has embraced these principles its 1978 mental health reform, which did away with the mental hospital. After thirty-plus years of community psychiatry, the nation has now the opportunity of exploring further enlightening developments of rehabilitation in the never-ending process of promoting the role of mental patients in society at large.

Keywords:

• Italian mental-health reform
• Psychosocial rehabilitation
• Community mental health
• Patients’ rights
• Deinstitutionalization