The Foundation has prepared a summary of the National Mental Health Conference which took place last 14-15 June at the Faculty of Economics ofLa Sapienza University of Rome. The national event was prepared by a journey through Italy Regional Conferences and from other local meetings; the appeal refers to three key words that coagulate its meaning: rights, freedoms, services. 

The text traces the contributions provided by the various speakers who attended, gives an account of the work developed in the six thematic sessions and ends with the catalog of requests-proposals that emerged from the Conference and addressed to the institutions.

Download the report on National Mental Health Conference edited by Renato Frisanco.

A laboratory designed around photography and its ability to fuel emotions and thoughts through what is framed within the limits of a frame. What to frame and how to do it makes the difference between who takes the shot and who takes the shot. With their respective internal realities and everything that lives and moves, slowly or frenetically, in each human being. The Photography Laboratory, one of our art therapy activities, represents the space for meeting and integration, in which people eager to undertake a journey of growth and change, accompanied by professional photographers, tell their stories and the world in they live in and the world they live in.

The Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation has been carrying out initiatives and programs on mental health since 2005, thanks to which over time a territorial support network has been created which works to encourage the social inclusion of people with mental health problems with therapeutic rehabilitation courses at Mental Health Centers of the ASL of Rome and with the support of volunteers trained through the annual training course "Volunteers and Families in the Network for Mental Health".

It is possible to purchase photographs of the laboratory by donation, by sending an email to segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it

Dear friends, the Foundation, starting from the solid principles left by Don Luigi, renews its commitment every day to take small steps on a path aimed at protecting the dignity of the most fragile people in society.

Much has been done and much more can be done. And we are happy to invite you to the Christmas Concert, organized with our music laboratory in the exceptional setting of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Via dei Greci 18 on Wednesday 12 December at 7.00 pm

Anyone wishing to book can do so by calling 066792669 or by sending an email to: segreteria@fondazionediliegro.it

Provisional ranking* for the awarding of four (4) places for the figure of volunteer in the project "RIPRENDERSI, citizenship paths in mental health" proposed by the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation onlus within the National Civil Service.

Place and date

Rome, 15 November 2018

The head of the National Civil Service

Dr. Maria Carla Brunetti

*Without prejudice to the checks pertaining to the national office for the civil service.

RANKING LIST

Youthful mental health problems are increasingly becoming an important element in modern society. Today, through new means of communication we are beginning to perceive the importance of this phenomenon which was once underestimated.

According to the WHO (World Health Organization), by 2020 more than 20% of developmental age subjects will suffer from some forms of mental disorder. Suicide will be the third leading cause of death in adolescence. At the same time we are witnessing a large increase in behavioral disorders, related to situations such as addiction to psychotropic substances, relationship problems, illnesses and poverty.

One of the most important emergencies of the last decade concerns social networks. This means of communication is increasingly uncontrollable, so much so that it is turning from a children's free time game into a real addiction.

The data shows us that in Italy, in the under 25 age group, the situation is complex. For this reason, the Di Liegro Foundation has decided, in the current edition, to focus on the theme of youth mental distress, bringing prevention to the fore, so that every adolescent can be able to live their existence to the full in order to avoid the onset of acute illnesses and degenerative processes.

The cost of the course is €20 for students, €50 for all other categories

To enroll in the course CLICK HERE

From 9 to 13 July the partners of the "Erasmus+ Hero Housing: an educational European Road to civil rights" project will meet in Liverpool to develop tools for housing training in local communities.
The objective is to spread the culture of support for the housing of people with mental health problems.

The home and the experience of independent living are inalienable rights for which the collaboration of the territory is essential. Improving housing services through training courses also means dealing with ethical, cultural and economic sustainability aspects.

We need to build a European curriculum to help communities develop skills and competences in this field. Project partners have created proposals for training manuals which will be examined and developed in Liverpool. The next step will be to start piloting.

The Di Liegro Foundation, the Italian partner of the HERO project, in its very recent research "Care networks and mental distress. Users, families and mental health services in Rome" has highlighted how the theme of living is an important element for projecting oneself into the future. Among others, users who are currently in family homes and apartment groups or supported apartments were also interviewed. "When asked about their aspiration for a desired future location, the prevailing opinion was that of wanting to "go and live in my own apartment" (53%) or at most with other people (17.6%). Only 3% would like to return to their family in the future. It is clear that a path to recovery to a normal and inclusive life, despite the symptoms of the disease, passes through a project of independent living shared or not with others".

For more information visit the website: www.housing-project.eu.

The experience of many years has shown us the therapeutic value of the tools they use creativity and talents, to combat the isolation and loss of self-esteem caused by mental disorder.

The artistic and socialization workshops they are a flagship of the Di Liegro Foundation. Painting, theatre, music, photography, cooking and sewing they bring out resources and potential that everyone possesses, more or less. It is partly individual work which however takes place in a group context. It is "doing and participating", knowing and making yourself known. People referred by the Mental Health Centers of Rome, psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers arrive in the laboratories. Participation is on a voluntary basis. They are users who choose to leave an institutionalized context to enter a reality that includes volunteers, family members, operators and which is open to the territory.

For several years, art therapy has been accompanied by a pilot project by the Di Liegro Foundation: la Fast walk. A movement technique that gives psychophysical well-being to anyone who practices it.

Training and Orientation in terms of mental health they are our main vocation. To ours courses - organized with the collaboration of managers and operators of local centers and mental health departments - family members of people with mental health problems and citizens who choose to make their time available to adequately support and accompany users participate.

This year's is the eleventh training course organized by the Foundation in partnership with the Fondation d'Harcourt of Geneva. It will start in October in our headquarters in via Ostiense 106.

We will soon publish the detailed program of appointments.

This year the Liegro Foundation is part of the team of organizers of the Via Francigena Festival which has reached its eighth edition. From May to November, over 500 events are planned on the theme "The Way. The food of the soul".

The group has been experimenting with walking as nourishment for the soul and as a source of psycho-physical well-being for some time Fast walk. For several years, every Wednesday, a meeting at the Eur lake in Rome, then long walks outside the neighborhood to discover the city and a more beautiful way of being in the world.

On 11 and 12 May 2018, the Di Liegro Foundation participates in the national meeting "Rights, Freedoms and Services" promoted byUnasam (National Union of Mental Health Associations), on the occasion of the forty years of the Basaglia law.

Approved on 13 January 1978, law 180 sanctioned the closure of mental asylums, bringing the inmates back to the outside world, restoring rights, dignity and citizenship to people with mental disorders.

A "revolutionary" regulation that has become a reference in the world for those who work in mental health.

Even today, although hindered, implemented only partially and even betrayed, the Basaglia law is a powerful engine of transformation of the institutions for the affirmation of the civil and social rights of the most fragile subjects.

The full implementation of law 180 - comments Luigina Di Liegro, president of the Don Luigi Di Liegro International Foundation - requires a new impetus, a renewed attention to the problems of mental health. It's not just about strengthening and redeveloping mental health services. We need to bring the issue of the rights of people with mental suffering and their families back into the cultural and political debate of the country."