In the Northern Italian city of Novara, a mobile support program was developed by the South Unit Area to assist people in mental health crisis in their own home, including those who have been just discharged from a psychiatric ward. The program has reportedly produced relatively low rates of involuntary admissions compared to other Italian services despite the program having less resources for mental health services than other parts of Italy (Submission 12).
The Unit covers an area with approximately 168000+ inhabitants. It comprises of the following (Submission 12):
- One psychiatrist and two nurses available for urgent interventions during opening hours (8am-8pm weekdays)
- Daily oral assumption of therapy at South Community Mental Health Centers, to improve compliance and therapy adherence’.
- 100% of outpatient visits occur within 30 days after hospital discharge (within 72 hours).
In 2017, data was compared with that collected for departments of mental health at the Regional, National, and city level using the Italian National Mental Health Information System (year 2017). The South Unit Area has the same avarage of treated prevalence of any mental health disorder despite having less resources (contributing to staff, residential facilities and rehabilitation centres) than Italy, but the number of involuntary admissions is fewer.