VIAREGGIO. He had left Viareggio when – a young graduate in psychiatry from the University of Pisa – he had won a competition at the Parma Local Health Authority, but the briny had taken him with him in his daily work dealing with mental health and addictions. On Sunday 28 April a sudden illness cut short the life of Simone Giuseppe Bertacca, 60 years old, for many years a psychiatrist in the street unit of the SerDP of the ASL of Parma, then at the Polo Est Mental Health Centre, since October 2019 working for the Pathological Addictions Service of the Integrated Activity Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions of the ASL Irccs of Reggio Emilia. Finally, in 2021, Bertacca became responsible for the simple operational unit of the SerDP of Guastalla.
«Simone was brilliant»: this is how he remembers him Tyrrhenian the psychotherapist Carlo Pruneti: «He had great clinical skill and was able to take an “x-ray” of the patient in front of him. I want to express all my appreciation for Simone and all my sorrow for her premature death.”
Colleagues – we read in the press release released by the Reggio Emilia health authority – “remember him as a jovial, witty, generous, informal workmate and an uncommon professional”. A psychiatrist for whom «working with young people, for young people (and not so young), whether they abused substances or not, working with schools and in schools and for the community was his daily bread, the area in which he performed better and better he felt he could give himself. He was much appreciated and it was no coincidence that some interns had opened a blog called “Blog of those who were lucky enough to know Doctor Bertacca”. Among the colleagues who met him on their path, Barbara Bezzi wrote: «You were a psychiatrist of great intelligence and foresight and your “Tuscanness” made you unattainable. Your patients loved you very much and this, dear Simone, really makes a big difference.”
Bertacca leaves behind his elderly mother living in Migliarina and all his family members whose message is: «Let’s always keep him alive by putting his teachings into practice. We always do good.” In the late afternoon of tomorrow the body will be in the farewell rooms of the Green Cross. The funeral is Thursday at 4pm in San Paolino.
