No abstract

This chapter will discuss action research conducted in Tuscany to fight stigma surrounding mental illness. Public mental health services (PMHS) in Italy are perceived as ascribing a mentally ill label to individuals who utilize these programs. Local associations, especially sports associations, can be used to fight this stigma. This chapter will present key aspects and results of a community social innovation intervention jointly performed by a PMHS and the University of Florence. The research will explore perceptions surrounding the role and value of the community sports association, participants' perceived improvements, effects of sports participation, and the role of the sports association as an instrument to promote mental health. Results will show that the sports association is perceived as an agent of social capital to reduce social barriers emerging from mental illness. In addition, stigma is deconstructed through improvements to individual and social wellbeing.

Telerehabilitation has proved to be a useful tool for neurodevelopmental disorders in allowing timely and intensive intervention and preventing relapses; it is also widely used for specific learning disabilities (SLD), showing significant effects on reading abilities, but variables linked to its effectiveness have not been studied yet. The present study was aimed at testing the effectiveness of telerehabilitation on reading and writing in SLD children, comparing different treatment pathways, and considering the impact of training intensity and executive functions. Seventy-three children were enrolled (telerehabilitation group: 48 children, waiting list group: 25 children). The results showed significant improvements in reading fluency, text dictation, and executive functions in the training group. Children attending a combined training including reading tasks and rapid automatized naming processes improved in word reading fluency and text dictation. The number of training sessions and the change in executive functions significantly correlated with changes in reading accuracy. Here we show a new contribution to telerehabilitation research in SLD: telerehabilitation significantly enhanced learning abilities and executive functions. Training based on the learning task and the underlying processes significantly increased not only reading speed, according to previous studies, but also writing accuracy. The findings’ implications in clinical research and practice are discussed.

No abstract

This chapter will discuss action research conducted in Tuscany to fight stigma surrounding mental illness. Public mental health services (PMHS) in Italy are perceived as ascribing a mentally ill label to individuals who utilize these programs. Local associations, especially sports associations, can be used to fight this stigma. This chapter will present key aspects and results of a community social innovation intervention jointly performed by a PMHS and the University of Florence. The research will explore perceptions surrounding the role and value of the community sports association, participants' perceived improvements, effects of sports participation, and the role of the sports association as an instrument to promote mental health. Results will show that the sports association is perceived as an agent of social capital to reduce social barriers emerging from mental illness. In addition, stigma is deconstructed through improvements to individual and social wellbeing.