BRINGING INTO ACTION THE PSYCHIATRIC REFORM IN SOUTH‐VERONA. A FIVE YEAR EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The organization of psychiatric care in Verona prior to the new Italian Mental Health Act, and the organization of the new South-Verona Community Psychiatric Service (CPS) implemented in 1978 after the approval of the new law, are described. Case-register data for the period 1979-1983 are also reported. To compare in-patient care provided in South-Verona after the Reform with that of the previous year, data on hospital admissions during 1977 were collected retrospectively. From 1977 to 1983 compulsory admissions have decreased by 67%, the average number of occupied beds per day and the average length of in-patient stay have decreased by 34%, while the total rates of admission have increased by 4%. The long-stay in-patient rate, which was already considerably low in 1977 (48/100,000), is still decreasing slightly and no "new" long-stay patients have accumulated in psychiatric institutions during the past three years. In South-Verona most of the patients are treated outside the hospital and the same staff is responsible for in- as well as for out-patient care (which includes domiciliary visits and day care), to ensure therapeutic continuity. Although it lacks some complementary facilities the South-Verona CPS in its five years of experience has been able to bring into action the psychiatric reform as indicated by the new Law.