We have received and published the note, sent by the regional centers of social cooperatives, on the tender for the assignment of management of welfare, therapeutic, rehabilitation and socio-rehabilitative services for psychiatric users in residential and semi-residential facilities in the Basilicata Region
One step away from the conclusion of the accreditation process for socio-healthcare structures, while the Basilicata TAR reiterates the need for the conclusion of the accreditation process, the Basilicata Region, in contempt of any type of interlocution and discussion, decides to publish a race that destroys stories, experiences, skills and professionalism with a stroke of the pen.
On behalf of Federsolidarietà Confcooperative Basilicata, Legacoopsociali Basilicata and Agci Sociale, on behalf of the hundreds of cooperators, users and their families, we strongly express our disappointment and our doubts, making the cry of alarm raised our own with conviction yesterday by CGIL, CISL and UIL. The tender for the assignment of management of welfare, therapeutic, rehabilitative and socio-rehabilitative services for psychiatric users in residential and semi-residential facilities in the Basilicata Region is a dangerous tender. Stop!
It seems incredible, but the Basilicata Region has gone back 50 years deciding to proceed with the announcement of a “monster tender” worth 100 million euros for a delicate service such as that of the management of psychiatric users which could end up in the hands of for-profit giants, as if nothing had happened.
The work of over three decades of those who guaranteed a large part of the residential mental health services in Basilicata has been mortified: sacrifices, training, experience, investments, all thrown away with what appears to be a “bureaucratic gesture”. It looks incredible. By centralizing the management of all the structures in Basilicata on a single node (“the awarded company”), the possibility of comparison or competition on the quality of the service is eliminated. Even worse if all the lots, as hypothetically possible based on the tender documents, are awarded to a single “company” without any territorial roots.
The tender, in its complexity, is configured as a real planning-programming of residential and semi-residential mental health services. All this in the absence of a regional plan for mental health, without any discussion with anyone, with the territories, with users, with cooperatives, with the Regional Council itself, the majority and the opposition, literally with anyone.
In the presence of a local regulatory labyrinth which in recent years has created confusion and slowed down the administrative procedures for the accreditation of structures, the tender documents in several places conflict with the same regional legislation regarding social and healthcare structures and, what is more importantly, they ignore criteria and requirements established by resolutions of the Executive and the Regional Council. Resolution 1218 is cited once calling it a regional law and another time calling it a resolution, distorting its content, and treating it as a boring frill to get rid of.
The risk of a “resurgence of unacceptable mental hospital temptations” – as the unions have underlined on several occasions – is evident to the extent that socio-rehabilitative activities are only formalized on paper, but in substance are reduced to welfare activities and hotels
It must be forcefully reiterated – and it seems incredible to have to do so – that people with psychiatric problems are not commodity objects. Rehabilitation, the emancipation of people from conditions of dependency to better living conditions, is a process of relationships. A residence equipped for people with mental health problems is a means, not an end. The aim is the emancipation of those people, the possibility of guaranteeing them the most dignified life possible. But we also need coherence between means and ends. Without adequate means for an end, the aim becomes unrealistic and produces unnecessary long-term costs. It has happened in Basilicata all these years. It was possible to guarantee the residences thanks to the sacrifices of social cooperation. Today we are forced to make further savings. Good: demands are reduced, objectives that are consistent with resources are made possible within the framework of regional planning that contemplates the accreditation system: the only civil system that can be used today.
What to do? There is little time left for the accreditation procedures to be concluded. Use this time to accelerate them and put a stop to the “madness” of the race thus created.
Michele Plati – Federsolidarietà Confcooperative Basilicata; Katia Bellomo – Legacoopsociali Basilicata; Pancrazio Gagliardi – Agci Social Enterprise of Basilicata
