Preventive policies are needed on
mental health, President Sergio Mattarella said on World Mental
Health Day Tuesday.
"Mental illnesses are pathologies whose risks the sick must be
protected from with appropriate treatments," he said in a
message to Health Minister Orazio Schillaci.
"Despite the multiple instruments of safeguard, there are still
numerous countries in which persons affected by mental health
pathologies are discriminated against or stripped of their
dignity, excluded from taking part in social and political life
of the communities they live in and from the right to decide
about their lives and their necessary treatment.
"Mental dysfunctions are surrounded by silence produced by
prejudice and this only increases the malaise.
"They are risks that involved a growing number of adolescents
and young people, already hard pressed by the crisis of the
pandemic and the appearance in Europe of the armed conflicts of
the last few years.
"It is a common responsibility to promote policies of
prevention, of swift diagnosis, inclusion and support, supplying
youngsters with the tolls to grow in health and lend support to
their families.
"Enjoying good mental health is the condition to freely exercise
a person's fundamental rights".
According to figures released ahead of world mental health day,
depression in Italy costs 4% of GDP and on average takes 10
years off people's lives.
Six Italians out of 10 are living with psychological malaise of
one sort of another, studies said.
The Italian Society of Psychiatry urged VIPs to talk openly
about any mental health issues they have in order to combat the
stigma still surrounding mental health disorders.
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