Mental health, dedicated support in only four out of 10 community homes

Of the 1,715 planned community homes, of which 781 have at least one active service, only 334, 42.8%, have mental health support services. However, just 66 are fully operational according to the expected standards, as noted by the Agenas 2026 report. This is the photograph taken by the Italian Society of Psychiatry (Sip) on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated on 10 October. Sip highlights how, at the same time, in 2024 almost 850 thousand people were assisted by the Departments of Mental Health (DSM). Overall, over 10 million services were provided, with an average of 13.6 interventions per user and 81.7% of services are still carried out within the DSM offices and only 8.3% at home.

An active role in planning treatment paths

Data which, according to the Sip, highlights the need to integrate the new proximity care network with that of the DSMs, linking community homes, mental health centers (CSMs), primary care, family counseling centers and social services. Sip also notes how, when the Community Houses are all activated, there will be one CSM for every 1.4 Community Houses and connecting the structures will be sustainable on an organizational level. For psychiatrists, we must arrive at an integrated and multi-professional network in which, as the WHO requests this year, people with lived experience of mental disorders and their families also have an active role in planning treatment paths. "Community houses represent an important opportunity to intercept distress early and bring mental health closer to the places where people encounter the healthcare system, but they must be strongly integrated with the Departments and Mental Health Centres, with general medicine and with other services already present in the area", explains Guido Di Sciascio, co-president of Sip and director of the Mental Health department of the ASL of Bari. "Really involving people with experience of mental disorder and their families means overcoming a model in which the patient is only the recipient of the care", underlines Antonio Vita, co-president of Sip and full professor of psychiatry at the University of Brescia. To symbolically recall this message, like every year Sip will 'light up' buildings and monuments throughout Italy with green

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