Norcia and the central italian earthquake: Challenges and lessons learned from the italian psychiatric reform movement

Abstract

Salvatore and colleagues wrote a brilliant Target Article (2022) in this journal on the state of Italian psychology and recommendations for change.  In this contribution, we look at the failure of Italian psychology to address the suffering of the affected population of the Central Italian earthquake in Norcia in 2016.  The Italian National Trauma Center centered in Orvieto, Umbria has been on the ground assisting local health care practitioners in caring for the mental health impact of the earthquake and the COVID pandemic lockdown.  Absent Italian psychologists walk hand in hand with a political system that has had limited response to the mental health needs of earthquake survivors.  Lessons learned from the historic revolution in Italian Psychiatry led by Professor Franco Basaglia are presented to help understand the current reality in Norcia.  Many of the barriers to mental health reform that existed for Basaglia and his colleagues still exist today.  This contribution strongly supports Salvatore and colleagues' recommendations for the transformation of Italian psychology.