The present state of psychiatric care in Italy

Since reforms were introduced in 1978, the treatment of mental illness in I taly is less uniform than ever before. The essential and core aspects of th ese reforms were not implemented in many southern provinces,but there are f lourishing private clinics in Pome and other metropolitan areas, and in the highly developed regions of northern and central Italy there are instituti ons meeting very high standards of complementary care. However, reforms in these areas had begun as early as in 1968 in accordance with Act 431 passed that year, and in these regions the newer reforms functioned only as a cat alyst. The extremely high goals set by the "Italian experiment" were not re alized, but the achievements of several Italian provinces in the areas of a mbulant and supporting psychiatric care can certainly be viewed as exemplar y. A general trend toward increased critical examination of ways of dealing with the mentally ill from the medicinal, humanitarian;and social points o f view is emerging.