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CarnevaleQuaresima

Democratic therapeutic communities for the future. How can we face epochal changes without distorting our mission?

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Abstract
Today therapeutic communities live in a condition of uncertainty and precariousness, due to a tangle of epochal changes, from a cultural, political and economical angle. The financial trouble led to cuts in mental health services, increasing regulation and administrative demands. The fact of facing this phenomenon of increasing stiffening, particularly on a political and institutional ground, pushed the therapeutic communities to implement an additional effort to “adapt” to this situation in a reasonable and sustainable way, without putting at risk the principles and values on which their clinical practice and research was founded.

The authors examine these issues talking briefly about the organisations who are all members of an extended family, then analyse some of the Read more

CarnevaleQuaresima

The “Visting in italy” project: origins, organisation and prospects

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Abstract

Visiting has its theoretical roots in the research of Lewin, and began in England in the early 2000s when the Community of Communities network, led by Rex Haigh, introduced this project structured on both peer- and self-review for monitoring the quality of treatment settings (for adults, minors, prisoners, etc.) and earning accreditation and financing from the National Health Service.

The Italian Visiting project, which Mito&Realtà designed, proposed and formally introduced in 2010, has the aim of encouraging communities to get to know each other through a process of assessing therapeutic and structural factors for the purpose of better identifying TCs’ weaknesses and strengths and encouraging immediate action with regard to problems by defining annual improvement goals and collaborating with the other participating TCs. This shared involvement is aimed at the creation of a TC network to counter isolation and establish a set common quality standards (benchmarks). The ultimate goal is to generate a circular exchange of good practices, procedures and materials, making more evolved experiences accessible to communities that have been unable to Read more