Assertive Interventions for First Episode Psychoses: The Italian Experience

Abstract

In Italy, despite the favourable conditions created by the 1978 reform law and the community psychiatry, at the end of the past century there were no culture or initiatives oriented to innovative and evidence-based founded interventions in early psychosis. The watershed was the setting up in the MHD of Niguarda (Milan) of Programma 2000, addressed to FEP and HR mostly inspired by the knowledge of existing studies and experiences and with the recommended characteristics of specificity, multicomponentiality, assertiveness and doctrinal orientation. From the very start, one fundamental aim was to disseminate information, training, supervision, and to raise consensus and initiatives throughout Italy, as well as to improve international links. In many ways, the consequences have been extremely positive. In 2005, Angelo Cocchi and Programma 2000 team founded the AIPP (Italian Association for Early Intervention in Psychosis), now named Italian Association for Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Health. Over the years, the Association has organized conferences, scientific days, working network, two national surveys on EIS and produced a document to favour their development. The results of the second survey are the more updated and articulated about the number of early interventions services, their characteristics and distribution in the different Italian regions. The survey conclusion is that EI Services implementation in Italy has been proceeding, albeit slowly. Nevertheless, there is still a great variability of therapeutic strategies and further efforts are then necessary to stimulate resources allocation as well as to assess and address adherence and fidelity to guidelines recommendations.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.