Modelli organizzativi per la cura della salute mentale e della schizofrenia in Lombardia, Lazio e Sicilia

The Basaglia law, enacted in 1978, decreed the closing down of mental hospitals in order to start a model of psychiatric care according to which patients would have been part of the society, without being relegated. Each Region reacted to this law by implementing its own model of mental health: some Regions invested in community-based services, while others increased the number of beds in the psychiatric departments of hospitals. The result is that the model of care for psychiatric patients in general, and schizophrenic ones in particular, is very heterogeneous at regional level, and seems to depend more on the services supplied than on the need of care. This paper focuses on three regional models – implemented respectively by Lombardy, Lazio and Sicily – and analyses the resource allocation for hospital admissions of schizophrenic patients. Results show disparities among regions in the provision of care and in the resource allocation between community-based and hospital services.