Lessons Learned From Italy: COVID-19 and Mental Health Services

Mental health services in Italy, as in the United States, have undergone significant changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In anarticle inJAMA Psychiatry, leaders from the Departments of Mental Health and Addiction in Lombardy describe several lessons learned during the COVID-19 crisis and unknowns about the long-term mental health of the population.Italy has a National Mental Health System divided into 134 Departments of Mental Health and Addiction, 27 of which are in Lombardy. While mental health care in Italy is available to all, changes to hospital psychiatric wards, day facilities, outpatient clinics, and home visits due to COVID-19 led to disruptions in care and considerable stress among people with mental illness, wrote Giovanni de Girolamo, M.D., of the IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, and colleagues. To be prepared for future crises, the authors recommended that mental health leaders take the following actions:Expand e-health technologies: While some Departments of Mental Health and Addiction in Italy were able to rapidly implement e-mental health services in response to COVID-19, others were not, according to the authors. Such services are particularly critical for assisting people supporting patients living alone at home, those suddenly exposed to marked isolation, those living in households with high levels of conflict, and those who have children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or intellectual disabilities, they wrote....
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: COVID-19 Departments of Mental Health and Addiction e-health services Giovanni de Girolamo Italy JAMA Psychiatry Lombardy mental health services psychosocial support stress Source Type: research