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How is Italy addressing its pandemic-induced mental health crisis?

After two years of being battered by the coronavirus pandemic, Italy is in the midst of a mental health crisis. How is the country facing up to the problem?

Published: 18 February 2022 13:14 CET

Italy's young people have been particularly hard hit by the effects of the pandemic. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Italy was hit early and hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and – as in the rest of the world – people across the country have spent the last two years struggling to cope with the fallout.

There are now widespread reports of a mental health crisis in Italy affecting younger people in particular.

Recent studies show that an estimated one in four adolescents now has symptoms of clinical depression and one in five are showing signs of anxiety disorders.

In January 2021, the Bambino Gesù paediatric hospital in Rome reported a 30 percent increase in hospitalisations of children aged between 12 and 18 due to self harm after the first wave of Covid.

Italy’s government and regional authorities are now taking steps to grapple with the population’s declining mental health; but is enough being done?

The scale of the problem

According to a recent study conducted by the mental health charity The Bridge Foundation (Fondazione The Bridge), the period between March 2020 and May 2021 saw a 68 percent reduction in adherence to treatments and a 63 percent increased risk of suicide among those already in the care of mental health services in Italy.

In the same period, 95 percent of the general population risked developing symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress, and there was an 85 percent increase in the consumption of non-prescription drugs such as psychotropics and anti-anxiety medications, the report says.

“These are alarming data that cannot be ignored by the government,” the foundation’s president Rosaria Iardino said in a press release published on Wednesday. “The issue of mental fragility must certainly be a priority on the government’s agenda.”

95 percent of Italy's general population is likely to have developed symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress over the course of the pandemic.

95 percent of Italy’s general population is likely to have developed symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress over the course of the pandemic. Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash.

A December 2021 survey conducted by the Soleterre Foundation and the Trauma Research Unit of the Catholic University of Milan based on a representative sample of 150 young people aged between 14 and 19 found that 69.3 percent of those interviewed felt the pandemic had become a part of their identity, and 64 percent said that it had made them a different person.

34.7 percent had trouble getting to sleep at night, and almost one in five (17.3 percent) said that they felt it would be better to die or had considered self-harm.

Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza acknowledged the problem over the weekend in an interview on the Rai talk show Mezz’ora in più (Half an Hour More), saying “the issue of mental health is crucial for the coming months.”

The current state of mental health services in Italy

Italy’s healthcare system is decentralised, operating on a regional rather than a national level and administered by local health authorities (Aziende Sanitarie Locali, or Asl) – meaning there are substantial variations in service provision depending on where in the country you’re based.

In 2020, Massimo Di Giannantonio, president of the Italian Society of Psychiatry, estimated that Italy’s local health authorities on average allocate just 3.2 percent to 3.3 percent of their budget to mental health, compared to upwards of 7 percent to 8.5 percent in places like Germany, France, and the UK.

Some Italian regions are taking their own initiatives to improve mental health outcomes.

People’s experience of mental health treatment in Italy will vary depending on where they’re based. Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Some Italian regions, however, are further ahead of the game than others.

In August 2020, Campania introduced a regional law granting all residents the right to be assigned a psicologo di base or ‘primary care psychologist’, the mental health equivalent of a GP, through their Asl.

The Office of the Italian Prime Minister appealed against the law on the basis that it was unconstitutional (arguing that such a step can only be taken at national level), but in December 2021 Italy’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling confirming its legality – meaning that as of 2022, Campania’s residents should all have access to a state-funded psychologist.

Campania’s regional authorities have so far allocated €600,000 to the initiative over the next two years, and have announced plans to hire more psychologists to fill positions that the programme will create.

In a press release published on its website, the Campania region said the move is aimed at “intercepting and managing the behavioural and emotional problems deriving from the Covid 19 pandemic,” as well as “intercepting the psychological wellbeing needs that often remain unexpressed by the population”.

What’s Italy as a whole doing to combat the crisis?

On Thursday, Italy announced plans to introduce a €10 million ‘psychologist bonus’ (bonus psicologo) to help people struggling with the effects of the pandemic to access mental health services as part of the new milleproroghe budget amendment bill, which is currently going through parliament.

If the proposal is passed, the funds will be made available via individual vouchers of up to €600 per person. As part of the plans, the bonus psicologo would be accompanied by an additional €10 million dedicated to strengthening existing health facilities and recruiting new mental health professionals.

The news of the bonus’s inclusion in the bill was met with praise by a number of public figures and politicians, with Democratic Party MP and former president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini saying it “meets the needs of many people, especially young people, who have experienced and are experiencing discomfort.”

C’è un aspetto del #COVID19 da non sottovalutare: gli effetti sulla salute mentale.

Il #bonuspsicologo va incontro alle esigenze di molte persone, specialmente giovani, che hanno vissuto e vivono un disagio.

Una misura sanitaria giusta, approvata oggi alla Camera.

— Laura Boldrini (@lauraboldrini) February 17, 2022

Some, however, were less impressed, as news outlets noted that the €10 million budget proposed for the psychologist bonus would benefit just 16,000 people; less than 0.0003 percent of Italy’s population of 59.5 million.

"16,000 people? How do you participate in these hunger games? I want to laugh but I just cry #bonuspsicologo" — Tweet reads: “16,000 people? How do you participate in these hunger games? I want to laugh but I just cry #bonuspsicologo”

An early draft of Italy’s 2022 Budget Law had reportedly contained plans to allocate €50 million to a ‘mental health bonus’, which were later scrapped – prompting Rai News journalist Francesco Maesano to launch an online petition campaigning for its reinstatement that has so far garnered over 317,000 signatures.

In response to Thursday’s news, Maesano wrote: “We wanted more resources, certainly, and we’ll be back to ask for them. But the path has been set and it’s the right one.”

He added that the petition would remain up, with the intention of putting pressure on the government to ‘enhance and renew’ the bonus in the coming years.

Alternative measures

Like Campania, some regions have already taken matters into their own hands when it comes to providing post-pandemic mental health treatment.

The region of Lazio in January announced that it was allocating €2.5 million to implement its own psychologist bonus scheme – a portion of the €10.9 million that the region has reportedly ringfenced for mental health over the next three years.

Following the December 2021 Constitutional Court judgement, Lombardy is now also set to follow Campania’s lead in establishing a network of a primary care psychologists, with Lombardy’s Regional Council reportedly voting unanimously in favour of the motion in January 2022.

In a triumphant Facebook post published on the day of the vote, Lombardy regional councillor Niccolò carretta wrote “IT’S DONE!… Soon every Lombard will have a local, trustworthy, accessible, daily and above all free psychological support service at their disposal”.

The government, meanwhile, insists that the €10-million-euro psychologist bonus is just a first step.

‘We need to be careful about thinking that we’ll solve the problems with the bonus, because there is a need for more resources for psychological assistance through systemic action,” Speranza acknowledged in his interview on Mezz’ora in più.

“The bonus is an initial signal.”

If you’re dealing with thoughts of suicide, help is available:

The Befrienders Worldwide helpline welcomes calls from anywhere in the world, seven days a week.
For Italian speakers, Telefono Amico’s crisis hotline is open between 10am and midnight every day: call 0223272327 to speak to someone.

Member comments

Mary White - 18 February 2022 at 14:59 CET

One of the best ways to deal with the mental-health crisis emerging from the plague is to ditch the mask mandates. Two years of not being able to read people’s expressions is causing great harm, especially to our children. Society now sees robots–faces that lack emotion. Google the mental and physical health importance of smiling AND perceiving smiles.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

How Italy has changed in two years of the Covid-19 pandemic

It may be hard to believe, but two full years have now passed since Italy began to lock down towns in northern Italy after Europe’s first known outbreaks of coronavirus were confirmed.

By early March 2020, Italy had become the first Western country to declare a nationwide lockdown.

In the intervening two years, Italy has been through a lot – and we think it’s fair to say that the country will never be quite the same again.

Not all of the changes are negative, however.

As we look ahead to the gradual easing of Italy’s remaining restrictions and the return of a more normal life in the coming weeks and months, here’s a look at some of the ways in which Italian culture and society has changed.

Less kissing, more personal space

Is the famous Italian two-kiss greeting gone for good?

While you might still give a close friend or a family member a little peck on the cheek, gone are the days where you’d stand in a circle knocking jowls with people you’d met just moments before.

In fact, the concept of personal space in general is now better understood and more widely practiced in Italy than it ever was in the past – whether it concerns touching between acquaintances, or crowding at the post office.

That’s not to say people are now keeping their distance at all times. But generally speaking, in public spaces most people are still keen to avoid pressing up against one another even in situations where social distancing is no longer really monitored.

This means ticketing systems have in many areas replaced queues – and where they do exist, lines are far more likely to be respected, with healthy gaps maintained between the people forming them.

A sign reminds people to observe distancing measures at a cinema in Rome – The sight of people forming an orderly, distanced queue is no longer unusual in Italy. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

This new awareness of and respect for personal space will be a striking difference for anyone returning to Italy for the first time since the pandemic began.

If you weren’t a fan of touchy-feely Italian behaviour before, no doubt this will come as a relief – while those who enjoyed these affectionate customs may find this a sad development.

Life in Italy is becoming (a bit) more digital.

We wouldn’t go as far as to describe it as a digital revolution, but the pandemic has certainly accelerated Italy’s adoption of online processes.

This is still Italy we’re talking about, and digital is by no means king – but it’s made some noticeable strides in the last two years.

If you need a document from your comune, or town hall, you can now in most cases access it for free online rather than having to block out an entire afternoon to go in person to collect a copy.

People are also much more amenable to the idea of checking – and answering – emails than was the case pre-pandemic, when nothing less than a phone call (ideally followed up by an in-person meeting) would get you any attention.

Similarly, more information is also now made available online, whereas before you may have been expected to go to an office in person to get even the most mundane questions answered.

You’re also more likely now to be offered the option of paying by contactless card, even for smaller sums, where cash is traditionally preferred.

This is not only due to people preferring card transactions amid the pandemic for hygiene reasons: the Italian government has introduced a number of measures within the past two years to encourage (and in some cases require) electronic payments, as part of a push to crack down on widespread tax evasion.

Take-out is much more widely available

While a good number of restaurants in Italy’s major towns and cities offered takeaway food and drinks before the pandemic, this is now standard all over the country.

Some places even got creative, offering to deliver pre-packaged, par-cooked box meals you could easily finish at home with the help of online videos.

Realising that the big delivery companies were taking a significant chunk of their profit, a few establishments set up their own delivery systems (if you want to order from somewhere, it’s worth calling them directly first to check whether they offer this).

It’s not just restaurants that have expanded their take-out offering; home delivery in general is more of an option these days.

If you need to order groceries to your house, for example, more supermarkets now let you book a slot online without too much hassle.

This has been a major change for people in smaller towns and more rural parts of the country, where ordering food and drink – particularly coffee – to take away was previously seen as somewhat unusual and undesirable.

Getting your cappuccino to go is now commonplace, even in parts of Italy where this was previously unheard of, and you might even be asked which you prefer when you make your order.

Although whether or not your coffee tastes just as good from a takeout cup is another question – one we know many Italians will have an opinion on.

E-scooter and e-bike craze

Foreign visitors coming to any Italian city after a two-year hiatus are liable to be immediately struck by one thing: Italy has whole-heartedly climbed aboard the monopattino (scooter) revolution wagon.

When the country started to reopen after the first wave of Covid, people looked for ways to travel around their city without being crammed into poorly-ventilated buses and trams, and app-controlled motorised scooters (and bikes) offered themselves up as the answer.

Electric scooters have become a common sight on the streets of Rome since 2020. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

While a switch to bikes and scooters were already fairly popular in other parts of Europe, Italy had remained stubbornly reliant on cars as the main mode of transportation, including in large cities.

The sudden onset of Italy’s electric scooter fever was fueled in 2020 by the government’s offer (now expired) of up to 500 euros towards the purchase price of a brand new e-bike or scooter for residents of Italian cities.

Street corners quickly became littered with discarded scooters, and pedestrians were suddenly imperiled by riders whizzing by on pavements at 25 km/h – problems which the government has since tried to resolve (with varying degrees of success) by introducing new laws to regulate this brave new mode of transportation.

Returning visitors might also notice that additional bike and scooter lanes have popped up in some cities to accommodate this extra traffic.

Construction and renovation boom

Policies brought in to support Italy’s economic recovery from the pandemic have prompted a (small-scale) construction boom.

It’s not the kind you’ll notice wandering the streets, however, as we’re talking less about erecting skyscrapers than about private homeowners earthquake-proofing their walls and putting solar panels on their roofs, as well as in some cases embarking upon rebuilding and renovation projects.

In May 2020, the government launched its ‘superbonus‘ home improvement and renovations scheme, which promised homeowners a tax deduction of up to 110 percent of the cost of making energy upgrades and reducing seismic risk.

Unsurprisingly, this prompted a surge in demand that Italy’s building companies have been unable to meet.

Construction firms, engineers and surveyors reported being overwhelmed by the sheer number of enquiries about the offer – many of which come to nothing once homeowners discovered that few people are eligible for the full 110 percent rebate.

Significant savings are still possible, though, and many property owners did go ahead with renovations – often only to face long delays to their projects.

Despite these problems, the policy has had the desired effect of boosting the country’s sluggish economy, with its construction sector recording investments of more than €9 billion under the scheme by November 2021.

The building ‘superbonus’ and ‘ecobonus’ schemes are still available in 2022, along with various other tax incentives for homeowners planning a renovation.

And despite the pandemic’s shake-up of the property market, house prices in Italy actually rose during 2021 overall, while a government scheme (that runs until June 30th, 2022) to help first-time buyers under the age of 36 purchase a house enabled many young Italians to leave their parental home for the first time.

Italy’s population crisis has worsened

Italy has long had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, and the situation has only been worsened by the coronavirus crisis.

In 2020 the Italian population shrank by almost 400,000 — roughly the size of the city of Florence — as deaths peaked, births fell to a new record low, and immigration slowed.

Many blame the ongoing birthrate crisis at least partially on the sluggish economy, the rising cost of living, and lack of financial support available for new parents.

In response, the Italian government has vowed to give more support to women and families and has since begun offering various forms of child support for the first time. In 2022, the government introduced a universal single allowance.

Have you noticed any other changes to life in Italy which are not mentioned in this article? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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