This article is published in number 21 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until May 24, 2022
May it is the month of mothers, of roses, of spring. And May is also the month of rights. The right to work and the right to mental health. Yes, mental health is also a right
which is celebrated this month and which the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently placed at the center of its policies, recognizing that “there is no health without mental health”. That’s why when the WHO speaks of health it is not referring to the mere absence of disease, but more appropriately to a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being. The pandemic has caused a significant increase in psychological distress, aggravating conditions of previous suffering in many people and causing new malaise to emerge in others. Scientific researches say this and testified to the considerable response that had in the first period of the pandemic, between April and June 2020, the initiative of the free toll-free number for psychological support activated by the Ministry of Health in concert with some scientific societies in the area psychological and psychotherapeutic. Tens of thousands of people turned to that initiative and found, in the most acute moment of the pandemic, an initial response to their discomfort. However, access to interventions with scientifically proven efficacy must be guaranteed in a structured and permanent way.
There are positive signs in this direction. The first is the establishment, a year ago, of a new one Mental Health Technical Working Table at the Ministry of Health: it is conceived as a place within which professionals from various disciplines, including psychologists and psychotherapists, can meet to highlight critical issues and propose operational actions. Another initiative that goes in the right direction is the progressive establishment of the basic psychologist. As there is still no national legislation, which is highly desirable, today we are dealing with a professional whose duties are defined in those regional realities that have recently begun to establish or experiment with him. The basic psychologist can provide primary psychological assistance, a rapid take-over of the needs of the person asking for help, identifying the treatment path deemed most appropriate. Beyond the intrinsic value it has for the type of service it guarantees, the initiative of the basic psychologist can contribute to the formation of a more widespread culture of access to psychological care and thus promote one’s mental well-being more naturally, such as it is done for your own physical well-being. The resources given for mental health support are real investments in the future, which translate into benefits not only for the people who benefit from them but more generally for the country. Something is starting to move in the right direction and there is a certainty: the road to the right to mental health must be traveled, and must be traveled together, institutions, professionals and citizens.
- Rita Ardito psychologist, psychotherapist, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Turin. Member of the Technical Working Table on Mental Health of the Ministry of Health.
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Source: Vanity Fair
