The prevalence of mental disorders is about to exceed that of cardiovascular diseases. Depression and other mental illnesses will be the most widespread in the world even before 2030the year in which the World Health Organization had estimated the ‘overtaking’. Numbers that in Italy are worth 4% of the gross domestic product between direct and indirect expenses. Not to mention the decrease in life expectancy by 10 years. Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost due to depression and anxiety each year, costing $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. They are some numbers remembered by the psychiatrists of the Sip (Italian Society of Psychiatry) on World Mental Health Dayscheduled today on October 10th
Given the ‘pandemic’ dimensions reached by mental disorders – continue the Sip experts – there is no corresponding increase (or improvement) in care services, particularly in our country. The Departments of Mental Health (DSM), in fact, have decreased in number (from 183 in 2015 to 139 in 2023), and are experiencing a profound crisis of personnel, especially doctors: it is estimated that next year another thousand will be missing. psychiatrists. “The reality is that in a decade which has seen a fivefold increase in cases of many psychiatric pathologies, especially among the youngest and most fragile categories, Italy’s mental health sector has found itself fighting on unequal terms with a changing society, with fewer and fewer resources, fewer and fewer public structures and fewer and fewer staff, abandoning the departments due to lack of safety and professional certainties”, highlights Emi Bondi, outgoing president of Sip and member of the technical table on mental health of the Ministry of Health.
“There are now too many cases of daily violence reported (35 ‘serious’ cases reported to Sip in the last year), especially in the emergency room. Not to mention the enormous difficulty of carrying out public scientific research. Naturally all this ends with burdening with patients, who find themselves more alone with less assistance and less attention. No ‘bonus’ will ever be able to make up for the lack of resources taken away from the public service and local medicinea true point of reference for the population, which needs structural investments, announced some time ago but never made available”, concludes Bondi.
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