Has anyone else heard about the World’s Best mental health model in Trieste, Italy? Their outpatient services system is so good tgey don’t need a psychiatric ward. They have one 8 bed 24 hour crisis center with no locks on the doors.
And it’s rarely filled.
Police are not called to intervene when someone is having a crisis, a mental health team comes. Apartments are given to them and nurses and doctors go to the apartment wearing regular clothes to give meds or provide therapy.
There’s a former hospital that is converted into a place where they can get 2 free good meals a day, learn a trade, just socialize, etc. It’s beautiful! And it’s all free due to the free healthcare system there.
Apparently, doctors from around the world go there to study the model and hopefully reproduce it in their own country. LA is trying something like it but LA is too big. Money would have to be earmarked to pay for it. In the long run, with all the social supports it’s cheaper than our system of repeated hospitalizations due to a lack of supports once they leave the hospital.
So I’m studying Italian and leaving in a few months for Trieste. I’m sick of this terrible system - especially after my sons recent hospitalization where they failed to give him his meds for 4 days and he will be there now for 5 weeks while they slowly get him back to his dose.
I’ll write from Trieste and let you all know how it’s going.