“For us family pediatricians, Covid, beyond bilateral interstitial pneumonia, has represented anxiety crises, moments of depression, suicidal attempts and social isolation phenomena. As pediatricians we have seen first-hand on the territory how much these adolescents, in recent years of the pandemic, have suffered and had difficulty interfacing with peers, accentuating another problem that we look at with particular attention: the phenomenon of cyberbullying and the incorrect use of digital technologies”. So Antonio D’Avino, president of the Italian Federation of Pediatricians (FIMP), in his speech today at the Ministry of Health at the General States of Pediatrics 2023, promoted by the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip).
“I believe – explains D’Avino – that it is obviously essential to start from the first 1,000 days of life, our mission is the prevention and promotion of correct lifestyles”. But “particular attention is also needed to adolescence – he specifies – As Fimp we have started studies that have shown how much teaching parents to wean a child with the Mediterranean diet has changed the family’s eating habits”.
Returning to teenagers, the Fimp president believes that “they must be helped by all those who can play a role in their growth. The school setting is very important, friends, but it is the family that should once again have a central role, a role that lately it has been somewhat delegated. Through parents, grandparents, the family, the founding nucleus, children and adolescents can be helped to understand the importance of certain concepts”.
On social inequalities, “we strongly want – adds D’Avino – that Law 833 of 1978, which founded the National Health Service and sanctioned the principles of equality, equity and solidarity, be reconsidered. As primary care doctors, we are convinced that the relationship of trust and the capillarity of professional studies is essential so that, at this moment in particular, certain actions of prevention and health education can achieve the objective”.
Still on the subject of current issues, “article 116 of the Constitution – recalls the Fimp president – opens the great chapter of differentiated autonomy, but article 32 provides very clearly that the Republic protects health as a fundamental right of the individual and the interest of the community. I understand that issues are currently being addressed at the government level in a certain direction – he observes – but as a healthcare world we must above all say what could happen if these inequalities increase. I believe that all the actions in the field must go in the direction of the protection of the health of the individual and the community, in full compliance with article 32” of the Constitution.
In favor of extending the pediatric service to 18 years of age, D’Avino recalls that “the objective of family pediatrics is to collaborate, with a view to multidisciplinarity and many professions, because the two founding principles of decree 77 on the reorganization of territorial assistance are based on innovation and flexibility of organizational models”.
#DAvino #Fimp #cyberbullying #incorrect #technologies #worsened #Covid