Mental health care financing in Italy: current situation and perspectives.

Through a review of the studies conducted on the analysis of the costs of the Italian mental health provision of care, this study aimed at describing the current financing system for mental health care in Italy. From the deinstitutionalization to the present days, Italian mental health care financing has evolved in line with both national plans and the actual European directives. The description of the current situation of mental health care financing in Italy can be useful to inform service planning and resource allocation, and to offer a wider European perspective.

Cancer mortality among psychiatric patients treated in a community-based system of care: a 25-year case register study.

Purpose: Cancer mortality data allow assessing, at the same time, the risk of developing the disease and the quality of care provided to patients after the oncologic diagnosis. This study explores the risk of death caused by a single tumor site in a psychiatric population treated in a community-based psychiatric service.

Methods: All patients with an ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis, seeking care in 1982-2006 (25 years), were included.

Burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction among staff in community-based mental health services.

Providing care to individuals with complex mental health needs can be stressful. However, little research has focused on the emotional, cognitive, and physical consequences of providing mental health care. The aim of this study is to assess burnout (BO), compassion fatigue (CF) and compassion satisfaction (CS) among staff at the four community-based mental health services (CMHS) of Verona, Italy.

A predictive model to allocate frequent service users of community-based mental health services to different packages of care.

Aim: To develop predictive models to allocate patients into frequent and low service users groups within the Italian Community-based Mental Health Services (CMHSs). To allocate frequent users to different packages of care, identifying the costs of these packages.

Methods: Socio-demographic and clinical data and GAF scores at baseline were collected for 1250 users attending five CMHSs.

Diagnosing psychotic disorders: validity, reliability and applications of the Diagnostic Interview for Psychosis (DIP). Italian version.

Aims: The Diagnostic Interview for Psychoses (DIP) is a comprehensive interview schedule for psychotic disorders, linked to the OPCRIT diagnostic algorithm, bridging the gap between fully structured, lay-administered schedules and semistructured, psychiatrist-administered interviews. Here we describe the validity, reliability and applications of the Italian version of the DIP.

Methods: The interview was translated into Italian and its content validity tested by back translation.

DRGs and other patient-, service- and area-level factors influencing length of stay in acute psychiatric wards: the Veneto Region experience.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify services-related and area-based measures together with socio-demographic factors that could improve diagnosis-related groups in explaining length of stay variability in general hospital psychiatric units in Veneto Region (North East of Italy).

Methods: Data were collected from the regional hospital discharge records database. A hierarchical multiple regression model with only diagnosis-related groups as predictors of actual and ln-transformed length of stay was compared with a second model in which patient-, service- and area-level variables were included.

Is the implementation of assertive community treatment in a low-income country feasible? The experience of Tbilisi, Georgia.

Background: In Georgia, difficult socioeconomic conditions have resulted in a drastic decrease in government financing for the health sector. State mental hospitals continue to be the main solution for the mentally ill, due to the severe lack of community-based services, and mental health services are inadequate to meet the needs of patients.

Methods: An experimental intervention of assertive community care was implemented with the aim to engage socially isolated patients who lacked contact with outpatient services and to answer their different social and psychological needs.

[The cost and utilization of psychotherapy in community-based mental health services. A multicentre study in five Italian areas].

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of psychotherapy intervention in five Italian Centres for Mental Health. Analysing sociodemographic characteristics, geographical differences, frequencies of psychotherapy interventions, and the costs of these interventions.

Methods: Five Italian Community-based Psychiatric Services collected data from 1250 patients during October 2002.

[Proposal for a new funding system for mental health departments. Results from an evaluative multicentre Italian study (I-psycost)].

Aims: To obtain a new, well-balanced mental health funding system, through the creation of (i) a list of psychiatric interventions provided by Italian Community-based Psychiatric Services (CPS), and associated costs; (ii) a new prospective funding system for patients with a high use of resources, based on packages of care.

Methods: Five Italian Community-based Psychiatric Services collected data from 1250 patients during October 2002. Socio-demographical and clinical characteristics and GAF scores were collected at baseline.

[Costs of psychiatric residential care in Italy].

Objective: The aims of this study are: (1) to estimate patients' costs in Italian non hospital Residential Facilities (RF); (2) to analyse the relationship between the costs of care received by residents and patients' or facilities characteristics.

Method: The PROGRES study included all Italian private and public RF (1370) with more than 4 beds. Of those, 265 were selected through stratified random sampling to be included in phase 2.