The pandemic continues to weigh on the mental health of Italians

Two years after the start of the pandemic, the psychological and emotional situation of Italians is still critical. This is demonstrated by the data of the voluntary organization Phone Friend Italy: in 2021 it exceeded the threshold of 100 thousand requests for help received. The increase compared to the pre-pandemic situation is defined as “dramatic” by the association, given that the requests for help are increased by 85%. And although the worst is perhaps behind us, the situation is progressively worsening. As if the consequences of this two-year period were starting to really unleash, at least for some, only now.

Compared to 2020 and the most acute phase of the pandemic, in fact, the people who turn to Telefono Amico Italia continue to increase: in 2021, requests for help grew by 13% compared to the previous year. «The impact of the pandemic on psychological sphere of people it was very remarkable and it is right now that the damage to the situation experienced in these two years is beginning to be clearly seen “he explains Maurizio Pompili, full professor of psychiatry at the Sapienza University of Rome and director of the UOC of psychiatry at the Sant’Andrea University hospital in the capital. “If on the one hand the company is restarting and we begin to glimpse the return to normality, on the other – adds the expert – the wounds left by the pandemic on the people most emotionally affected are starting to be evident”. On this front he could lend a hand the new psychologist bonus approved by Parliament during the conversion phase of the Milleproroghe decree: soon we should know more about the allocation methods.

Telefono Amico Italia has been supporting people who need support for over 50 years, supporting them through three listening modes strictly anonymous: the telephone service, which answers the single national number 0223272327active 365 days a year from 10 to 24; Mail @ mica, which can be accessed by filling in an anonymous form on the website www.telefonoamico.it; WhatsApp Friend, reachable via chat at 3240117252 every day from 18 to 21. The latter, that is the chat, is the service that has seen the most considerable increase in users compared to 2020: requests for help received from volunteers have increased by 56%, passing from over 6 thousand to almost 10 thousand. WhatsApp Friend it is without great surprises the listening service most used by young: 27.8% of users are between 19 and 25 years old, 22.8% between 26 and 35 and 19.2% are between 15 and 18 years old. Furthermore, 66% of users are women.

“What put the most in difficulty – emphasizes Pompili – was theinsecurity for the futurethe feeling of despair and, for the younger ones, the lack of affective maturation due to the absence of comparison with peers. All those who have had enough resilience to resume activities will rise again, but those who have been most damaged and who have not had the opportunity to have psychopathological compensation will be left behind. In the years to come we will have to be even more careful, monitor the situation and especially assist the most fragile people ».

The telephone service instead, it is the one that has seen a greater increase in new users, i.e. people who in the past had never asked for help from Telefono Amico Italia, compared to the first year of the pandemic: in 2021 there were over 46,500, 35% more compared to the previous year, and they have grown by as much as 160% compared to the pre-pandemic. Unlike WhatsApp Amico, users who use the single national number of Telefono Amico Italia are mainly men (55%) and the average age of users is higher than those who use the chat.

In general, the difficulties of those who contact Telefono Amico Italia are the same. 58% report for example problems related to the area of ​​the self, as a need for company, existential issues, loneliness; another part of the user is instead facing relationship difficulties with family, friends, partners; other users still experience situations of marginalization.

The increase in telephone calls received by Telefono Amico Italia with reports of mental illness, which increased by 29% compared to last year, is also of particular concern. “The impact of the pandemic on those who were already grappling with psychopathological problems is an issue that has worried from the beginning – continues Pompili – the consequences were especially important for the”situations below the threshold”, Who did not yet have a full-blown condition; in cases where there was already a management it was possible to continue to follow the patients. For those who, on the other hand, had more hidden vulnerabilities, the effect of the pandemic facilitated the onset of more serious conditions “.

With the pandemic we have all realized the importance of psychological well-being and second Monica Petra, president of Telefono Amico Italia, we understood «how much it affects our quality of life and how dangerous it is to lose it. Since 1967, Telefono Amico Italia has been committed to being close to the most fragile people and to all those who find themselves going through a particularly hard time. Just like the one that has affected everyone since March 2020. In this long period of emergency we have worked hard to respond to the needs of the many people who contacted us, we have put our experience and expertise at everyone’s service, as always. Now it is necessary that the institutions also commit themselves on this front: let’s begin to see some brave attempts that go in this direction and we can certainly consider them a good starting point, it is now necessary to build an organic network of interventions that can guarantee basic psychological support to all ».

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