Abstract

Human beings are immersed in group settings of one kind or another all life long and even when individual mental suffering exacerbates to the point of needing hospitalization, people find themselves sharing space, time and emotions with others. A mental health crisis breaks the individual and family balance and expresses itself with acute and extreme thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Psychiatric hospitalization, although traumatic, gives the patient and his/her relatives an opportunity of living all the alterations in a protected environment also offering them an explanation for these alterations. Clinicians aim to intervene as soon as possible after the onset of a crisis in order to enable the individual to overcome it and to return to normal functioning, reclaiming his or her life in the community. This paper explores the therapeutic application of group therapy on an acute inpatient ward (SPDC) in the Sandro Pertini Hospital in Rome, Italy.

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