Civic education THE ABOLISHMENT OF PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS IN ITALY In 1978, the Italian Parliament approved the law decreeing the closure of psychiatric hospitals (PH). It was made possible through results obtained from an experiment that had begun a number of years before in Trieste and, in various degrees, in other Italian cities. In 1971, the city of Trieste with its 230,000 inhabitants had a PH with more than 1,100 patients. The majority of them had been hospitalised for multiple years, if not decades. That same year, Prof. Franco Basaglia became the director of the PH. He set in motion a radical programme to humanise the care and assistance provided. The psychoanalists involved in Basaglia s project viewed it as a great challenge and stimulus. The priorities Basaglia established included: humanising the PH, which had to 8 that time been delegated more to reclusion than treatment, and to rehabilitate patients by restoring dignity and a semblance of humanity to their lives: replacing gowns with normal clothing, providing barbers and hairdressers, letting them see normal places cinemas, theatres, sport events, day trips, and work environments rather than confining them to the same ward all day. The idea was to open their doors and let them gradually return to the world from which they had been cast out. At the time there was still a stereotyped image of the mentally ill. Patients were seen as crazy, aggressive, dangerous, and incurable and thus to be locked up in a PH. Adapted from: https://www.ipa.world/IPA/en/News/ News_articles_reviews/Basaglia_Law.aspx Answer the questions. 1. What did Prof. Basaglia do to humanise the PH? 2. What was the common image of the mentally ill? 3. How do you imagine patients in PHs were treated before the Basaglia law? 4. Discuss the difference between reclusion and treatment. 9 Read two extracts from Law 180/1978 (Basaglia Law) and make a list of its principles. Then, for each principle, identify the problem it deals with. 0 . willingness/consent to health assessment and treatment before this law people were diagnosed and treated without their consent. Article 1: Voluntary and Compulsory Health Assessments and Treatments Health assessments and treatments are voluntary. In the cases referred to in this law and in those expressly provided for by state laws, the health authority may order compulsory health assessments and treatments in compliance with the dignity of the person and the civil and political rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including, as far as possible, the right to free choice of doctor and place of care. [ ] During compulsory health treatment, the person undergoing it has the right to communicate with whomever they deem appropriate. The compulsory health assessments and treatments [ ] must be accompanied by initiatives aimed at ensuring consent and participation by those who are obliged to undergo them. [ ]. Article 2: Compulsory Health Assessments and Treatments for Mental Illness The measures referred to in [ ] the preceding article may be ordered with respect to persons suffering from mental illness. [ ] The proposal for compulsory health treatment may provide that care be provided under conditions of hospital detention only if there are psychic alterations such as to require urgent therapeutic interventions, if the same are not accepted by the patient, and if there are no conditions and circumstances that allow for the adoption of timely and appropriate non-hospital health measures. to cast out: scacciare/ escludere 308 SOCIETY HELPS to decree: decretare to deem: ritenere gown: camice ward: reparto