Psychiatric rehabilitation patterns in Italy: Results from the Italian Society of Psychosocial Rehabilitation (SIRP) survey

Abstract

IntroductionPsychiatric rehabilitation can be considered a bidirectional technique, designed to allow patients to achieve their personal target, focusing on the individuals’ strengths and challenges related to these targets and also on the community organizations in which they will live them out. Unfortunately, psychiatric rehabilitation is too often not considered a first line treatment. Moreover, rehabilitation has been confused with a generic and rough practice, consisting of extemporary actions and aimless entertainments designed to fill “the time passing”.MethodsThe aim of this study was to increase the knowledge and awareness about the state of the art of different systems of management and funding of psychosocial rehabilitation in the Italian “real-world” rehabilitative settings, using a specifically developed questionnaire.ResultsThe data obtained are positive for some aspects of the rehabilitation interventions, in particular for the use of validated tools for the evaluation and revision of projects and for the trend to work on a team, even though the scarcity of evidence-based rehabilitation interventions applied in Italian psychiatric services is less encouraging.ConclusionThis survey presents, at least partially, the “real-world” of rehabilitation in Italy so that we can lay the foundations for the definition of an updated, validated and shared network of what is implemented in the context of psychiatric rehabilitation.

Efficacy of Psychosocial and Psychological Interventions in Addition to Drug Therapy to Improve Global Functioning of Inpatients with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Mood Disorders: A Real-World Observational Study

“…39 Psychosocial rehabilitation interventions might be an efficient tool to stimulate resocialization, interpersonal skills, functioning, and autonomy in a patient’s everyday life, bearing in mind that, regardless of their clinical severity, a patient’s areas of functioning can always be improved by therapeutic and rehabilitation work. 40 , 41 Although psychiatric rehabilitation is sometimes considered a second-line treatment, intended as a generic and rough practice, consisting of extemporary actions and aimless entertainments designed to fill “the time passing”, 42 activities and psychoeducation seem to be essential to support the patients both at the onset and at the chronic stage of the disease, promoting mental health.…”

“…Examining the recent literature on recovery in schizophrenia, Vita and Barlati 23 argue that an integrated and multifaceted approach involving psychosocial interventions is effective and improves the treatment outcomes of disease. On this regard, the changes in the legislation on mental health care that took place in Italy through Law 180/1978, known as the Basaglia Law, 24 which imposed the closure of asylums and regulated compulsory health treatment, establishing public Mental Health Services, with the intention of favoring therapies that were not detrimental to the dignity and quality of life of patients, have assumed an important role in the evolution of the morals and common sense of civil society in the country.…”

The efficacy of homestyle rehabilitation on negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial

“…Additionally, social skills training has emerged as a promising rehabilitation technique, with evidence suggesting that it can improve social skills, increase social support, enhance selfesteem, and reduce self-stigma, ultimately leading to the improvement of negative symptoms (37)(38)(39). Recent studies have suggested that a combination of multiple intervention methods may be more effective (40)(41)(42), and thus, our study employed a combination of all three intervention methods. The results indicated a significant improvement in negative symptoms, depression, and involuntary movement.…”

Gender impact on the outcome of rehabilitation programs in psychiatry: Brief report from a metropolitan residential rehabilitative service

“…The concept of recovery has been widely discussed in the psychiatric field and is becoming the main target of psychiatric care in many healthcare models (12)(13)(14)(15). However, standardized models of care to facilitate recovery for the main psychiatric diseases are still debated (16,17).…”