The characteristics and activities of child and adolescent mental health services in Italy: a regional survey

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Emilio Franzoni¹  Paola Visconti²  Stefano Trebbi³  Giovanni Colasurdo⁴  Linda Ferraresi⁵  Antonella Squarcia⁶  Roberto Parisi⁷  Donatella Turchetti⁸  Michela Fabiani⁹  Andrea Tullini^1,10  Cosimo Ricciutello^1,11  Francesca Masina^1,12  Stefano Palazzi^1,13  Antonio Preti^1,14  Laura Pedrini^1,15  Giovanni de Girolamo^1,15  Antonia Parmeggiani^1,16  Vittoria Neviani^1,17  Davide Sisti^1,18  Marco BL Rocchi^1,18  Renato Moschen^1,19  Stefano Costa^2,20 

[1] A.O. Universitaria Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy;AUSL di Bologna, Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna, Italy;AUSL di Bologna, UONPIA, Monzuno, (BO), Italy;AUSL di Forlì, UONPIA, Forlimpopoli, Italy;AUSL di Modena, UONPIA, Sassuolo, (MO), Italy;AUSL di Parma, UONPIA, Parma, Italy;AUSL di Piacenza, UONPIA, Piacenza, Italy;AUSL di Ravenna, UONPIA, Ravenna, Italy;AUSL di Reggio Emilia, UONPIA, Reggio Emilia, Italy;AUSL di Rimini, UONPIA, Rimini, Italy;AUSL of Imola, UONPIA, Imola, (BO), Italy;AUSl di Cesena, UONPIA, Cesena, Italy;AUSl di Ferrara, UONPIA, Ferrara, Italy;Department of Psychology, University of Cagliari, Italy;IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio-Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy;IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences and Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy;Il Nespolo, Ospedale Privato Villa Igea, Modena, Italy;Institute of Biomathematics, University of Urbino, Italy;U.O. NPI Ospedaliera-Psicopatologia dell'Adolescenza e U.O. NPI Ospedaliera-Neurologia RIMINI, Italy;UOS Psichiatria e Psicoterapia età evolutiva, Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna, Italy;

关键词: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS);    Process of care;    Adolescence;    Child Psychiatry;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-12-7

 received in 2011-07-22, accepted in 2012-01-30,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo date, no studies have assessed in detail the characteristics, organisation, and functioning of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This information gap represents a major limitation for researchers and clinicians because most mental disorders have their onset in childhood or adolescence, and effective interventions can therefore represent a major factor in avoiding chronicity. Interventions and mental health care are delivered by and through services, and not by individual, private clinicians, and drawbacks or limitations of services generally translate in inappropriateness and ineffectiveness of treatments and interventions: therefore information about services is essential to improve the quality of care and ultimately the course and outcome of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence.The present paper reports the results of the first study aimed at providing detailed, updated and comprehensive data on CAMHS of a densely populated Italian region (over 4 million inhabitants) with a target population of 633,725 subjects aged 0-17 years.MethodsUnit Chiefs of all the CAMHS filled in a structured 'Facility Form', with activity data referring to 2008 (data for inpatient facilities referred to 2009), which were then analysed in detail.ResultsEleven CAMHS were operative, including 110 outpatient units, with a ratio of approximately 20 child psychiatrists and 23 psychologists per 100,000 inhabitants aged 0-17 years. All outpatient units were well equipped and organized and all granted free service access. In 2008, approximately 6% of the target population was in contact with outpatient CAMHS, showing substantial homogeneity across the eleven areas thereby. Most patients in contact in 2008 received a language disorder- or learning disability diagnosis (41%). First-ever contacts accounted for 30% of annual visits across all units. Hospital bed availability was 5 per 100,000 inhabitants aged 0-17 years.ConclusionThe percentage of young people in contact with CAMHS for mental disorders is in line with those observed in previous epidemiological studies. The overall number of child psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants is one of the highest in Europe and it is comparable with the most well equipped areas in the US. This comparison should be interpreted with caution, however, because in Italy, child psychiatrists also treat neurological disorders. Critical areas requiring improvement are: the uneven utilisation of standardised assessment procedures and the limited availability of dedicated emergency services during non-office hours (e.g., nights and holidays).

【 授权许可】

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© Pedrini et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.