BRINGING INTO ACTION THE PSYCHIATRIC REFORM IN SOUTH‐VERONA. A FIVE YEAR EXPERIENCE

ABSTRACTThe organization of psychiatric care in Verona prior to the new Italian Mental Health Act, and the organization of the new South‐Verona Community Psychiatric Service (CPS) implemented in 1978 after the approval of the new law, are described. Case‐register data for the period 1979‐1983 are also reported. To compare in‐patient care provided in South‐Verona after the Reform with that of the previous year, data on hospital admissions during 1977 were collected retrospectively. From 1977 to 1983 compulsory admissions have decreased by 67%, the average number of occupied beds per day and the average length of in‐patient stay have decreased by 34%, while the total rates of admission have increased by 4%. The long‐stay in‐patient rate, which was already considerably low in 1977 (48/100,000), is still decreasing slightly and no ≪new≫ long‐stay patients have accumulated in psychiatric institutions during the past three years. In South‐Verona most of the patients are treated outside the hospital and the same staff is responsible for in‐ as well as for out‐patient care (which includes domiciliary visits and day care), to ensure therapeutic continuity. Although it lacks some complementary facilities the South‐Verona CPS in its five years of experience has been able to bring into action the psychiatric reform as indicated by the new Law.