The Challenge of Educational work in the Italian Psychiatric Services

Basaglia’s psychiatric reform (1978) revolutionized psychiatric care in Italy and, starting from that movement, Italian organization of mental health services began to be a model for the international psychiatric sector. After thirty-five years, there is the effort to create a first evaluation of the actual situation of mental health services: its re-organizations lasted about twenty years and, after that, the social, cultural and political context is really different from the one in which Basaglia operated. In this sense, it’s important to generate first reflections about the work and the management of mental health services nowadays, after thirty-five years from Basaglia’s reform. The paper will be focused on the multidisciplinary teams that manage these services: in particular, a specific reflection will be offered about the work of educational professionals, more and more involved in psychiatric contexts.