by Matteo Bellinazzi
Mental health and the psychological impact of the pandemic was one of the central themes discussed during the last Territorial Social and Health Conference (CTSS).
In this regard, Dr. Paola Carozza, director of medical-psychiatrist of the Department of Mental Health Ausl of Ferrara, presented the proposal to use the Intensive Hospital Psychiatric Service (Spoi) for Covid-19 positive psychiatric patients.
The proposal, which is part of the planning of measures to cope with the epidemic also for people with mental illness, as for all other healthcare patients, envisages “the use – explains Carozza – of the Spoi on a temporary basis, for patients psychiatric patients that will test positive for Covid-19 and will be carried out only if the two beds of the Cona Psychiatric Diagnosis and Care Service (Spdc) are occupied, equipped as a ‘dirty area’ “.
This eventuality could occur “when – Carozza specifies – two positive patients are present at the same time, or there is the concomitance of a patient awaiting the result of the swab with the arrival in the ward of another patient awaiting the outcome or already admittedly positive “.
The activation of the Spoi beds would also take place in the situation in which “there are cases of positivity in the three psychiatric residences of ‘San Bartolo’ (30 patients), ‘La Luna’ (15 patients), Basaglia (15 patients), which they must be isolated, given the absence of the logistical and structural conditions to compartmentalize such structures “.
Patients welcomed and managed with medical and nursing staff belonging to the Integrated Welfare Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions (Dismpd) “will be the acute and subacute ones with mild / moderate levels of emotional and behavioral disorganization, the most manageable”.
As regards, however, “patients in the Tso regime and very decompensated and disorganized acute patients will continue to be managed in the SPDC in Cona”.
“The situation on average – Carozza specific – never sees more than 5 patients hospitalized at the Spoi, and should the need arise to use it for pandemic management, the non-positive patients present at that time would be discharged and sent back to their homes or supported by our residences where the increase in home care and the network of services is underway ”.
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