The information gathering visit continued to Villa Igea – an accredited private psychiatric hospital in Modena, part of the Colibri Consortium. The thirty guests that form part of the staff of two important psychiatric hospitals in Japan, the Asaka Hospital in Fukushima, with 500 beds and the Goshikidai Hospital in Kagawa, together with the two respective directors Doctor Kei Sakuma and Doctor Jin Sato, talked about a wide range of aspects with the staff of Villa Igea. In particular organisational aspects which are noticeably different between Japan and Italy as well as cultural differences relating to the treatment and care of psychiatric patients.
Italy -Japan: two different psychiatric models
The Descovich Health Centre is a new of the Consortium
22 September 2020Rehabilitative treatment and curing mental illnesses is the main theme of the study tour of a delegation of Japanese doctors. The group, made up of psychiatrists and nurses, has visited two psychiatric hospitals of the Colibri group: the accredited private hospital “Ai Colli” (Bologna) and the accredited private hospital Villa Igea (Modena).
There are three characteristics that, according to the delegation, make these an excellence in the field of mental health: the innovation of the rehabilitation process, the personalisation of the treatment and the continuity of the post recovery care.
At the Ai Colli hospital the delegates were greeted by Doctor Paolo Baroncini, the health director, who described the services, the management, the method and the overall organisation.
“The objective of this visit – explained the Japanese spokesman – is to learn about and study of the treatment of mental illnesses that continue to represent a challenge for medicine at a global level. The doctors of the Ai Colli hospital have told us on what principles they base their care, continuous and personalised, capable of helping people with addictions to take back control of their lives and live a normal life. We have understood that every therapeutic process is personalised and at the moment of dismissal the medical staff pay great attention to reintegration into life outside, with the help of the family.”
Some important differences emerged at an organisational and regulatory level between the two countries regarding the field of mental health. If the Basaglia law led to the closure of asylums and specilaised care and social rehabiltation at home or in structures, in Japan asylums are still functioning. The second difference is that Japanese families live in a state of anxiety for the moment when a family member returns home without any continuous care and support. The accredited hospital Ai Colli starts from an accurate clinical, psychopathological, family and social evaluation. After dismissal the patients are always followed and taken care of by the local Mental Health centre.
At the end of the visit the delegation was welcomed in the Consortium offices by the Managing Director Averardo Orta. An exchange of experiences and the promise to continue with this cultural exchange, with gift giving and group photographs in the luxuriant gardens of the Consortium in Via Bellombra.
