Today 10 October 2020 the World Mental Health Day around the world, an anniversary strongly desired by the WHO, World Health Organization, also known as Mental Health Day. The day was established 28 years ago, in 1992, by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) together with the WHO and the Ministries of Health of the individual countries.
The primary objective of this event is to raise the awareness of the entire population on the mental disorders that afflict children, young people, adults and the elderly of every social class and every country (especially after the outbreak of Covid-19), and to try to eradicate the social stigma and taboos that afflict patients and their families.
Putting mental health at the center of public debate it is the imperative of a society that considers itself civil. “To break down the wall that still surrounds these pathologies, we need to move towards community mental healthà “declared the State Secretary for Health Sandra Zampa.
Patients with mental disorders are often left alone, ghettoized and abandoned to the exclusive care of their families. If they are lucky to have one. In our own small way each of us can do their part, to begin with, eliminating from common language expressions such as “I feel depressed”, or “that is bipolar”, used outside the appropriate context. Nobody would dream of using the lexicon of other pathologies to indicate their own or others’ emotional state, a clear sign of the taboo and slight mockery that surround the mentally more fragile people.
The numbers of mental health in Italy
Yet psychic suffering affects everyone, our families, our friends, our colleagues. According to the last report on Mental Health of the Ministry of Health, psychiatric users assisted by the Italian specialist services are 837.027. Of these, 53.8% are women and 68.3% are over 45 years old. Men suffer more than schizophrenic disorders, of personality, gives substance abuse and mental retardation, while statistically women present for more affective, neurotic and depressive disorders (women with depression are almost twice as many as men).
Mental illness is a disease like many others, and it can often be cured. It is in this direction spot “He cares“, presented by the Ministry of Health on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day of 10 October 2020.
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