Psychoeducational group for acute psychiatric care. The Italian experience and suggestions for future needs.

Abstract

Introduction: The implementation of an innovative psychoeducational group intervention in Italian general hospital psychiatric units started in the years 2000-2001 in two Italian regions. The aim of this contribution is to describe the intervention method and the experience of its application, its spread, the results of evaluation studies and its evolution.

Method: The methodology is qualitative/quantitative. The qualitative approach concerns the description of the prevalent clusters of topics in the most used intervention modules. The quantitative approach concerns the analysis of indicators used in the evaluation studies carried out since 2000-2001.

Results: Over time, three topics of the intervention have remained constant: "What happened before the crisis"; "Stress-vulnerability-coping model"; "Psychotropic drugs: shared decisions". Other topics have been introduced based on the patients' preferences: "Psychophysical well-being", "Awareness", "Emotions-thoughts-behaviors connection", "Problem-solving" and "Stigma". The intervention has been applied over time in 15% of Italian psychiatric wards with positive results (main result: decrease in readmissions and restraints).

Discussion: Two main topics are discussed: a) the advantages and obstacles in applying the intervention; b) the need for addressing also the issues of substance dependence and antisocial personality.