CALTANISSETTA. “We are proud to present this project today at CEFPAS, tested in the Pediatrics department of the “Umberto I” Hospital in Enna, which has as its main object the collaboration between the pediatrician and the developmental psychotherapist and the effective sharing of work between the different operators involved in the same clinical case to reach an integrated vision of the patient’s well-being” declares Roberto Sanfilippo, Director of the Center, on the occasion of the Conference “Pediatricians and developmental psychotherapists together in a new path of diagnosis and treatment” which was held on May 24th at CEFPAS. Present at the meeting: the Regional Health Councilor Giovanna Volo and Salvatore Requirez, General Director of the Department for Health Activities and Epidemiological Observatory (DASOE).
“The objective of the day is to be able to share our experience with the pediatricians of the other Sicilian ASPs and with the institutional figures responsible for structural changes in public health. We would like the conference to be able to promote a training action that allows other colleagues to be able to acquire and apply the working method we have experimented with, for a new and more complete vision of the patient” explains Anna Maria Millauro, Pediatrician, Head of the pediatrics of the “Umberto I” hospital in Enna who adds “The most effective path involves the institutional figures invited to the congress to understand, welcome and promote this project, in order to create the legal possibilities for a change towards a new vision of the patient”.
Presenting the results emerging from the study, the result of the collaboration agreement between the CSMH of Palermo, the CEFPAS and the ASP of Enna – through its Paediatrics Department and the Mother and Child Department -, is Lara Di Venti, psychologist and psychotherapist of the developmental age, Tavistock model, CSMH of Palermo: “Unlike what we expected regarding the possible resistance on the part of the little hospitalized patients and their parents, the psychotherapist, a new figure for the department, was mainly well received by the patients and from their families. More difficult to quantify, during the days of my presence in the ward at the Enna hospital (two mornings a week), the conversations held with patients and parents, sometimes motivated by reports from paediatricians, sometimes generated by the very fact that I was there to introduce myself to them in the rooms or in the games room, other times requested by the parents themselves. Interviews which did not always have the possibility of a certain continuity in the following days, precisely due to my non-constant presence compared to the times foreseen by the various hospitalizations”.
Another important innovation of the project was the activation of a psychological clinic to which patients were also directed through the letter of resignation, following the patients’ request for continuity of meetings with the psychotherapist. “Public services dedicated to the psychological development of children and adolescents are often overwhelmed with requests for assessments and diagnoses, the waiting lists are very long and priority is given to cases of already evident and full-blown distress. I believe it is essential for the well-being of the little ones that the adults who take care of their growth (family members and professionals) know how to discuss, in order to enrich their points of view, generating an outlook that is as complete, virtuous and beneficial for healthy development as possible. of the new generations” continues Lara Di Venti, developmental psychologist and psychotherapist, Tavistock model, CSMH of Palermo.
Maria Luisa Mondello, developmental psychologist and psychotherapist, Tavistock model, President of the Martha Harris Study Center in Palermo, speaks about the importance of the multidisciplinary approach given by the collaboration between the developmental psychotherapist and the pediatrician: “Without giving up the specificity of the medical and psychological perspective, it seems appropriate that alongside the child and the parents, expertise nourished by the professional specificity of a pediatrician and developmental psychotherapist can be intertwined, to jointly grasp the trends of growth both in the function of supporting validly functional paths and practices to good progress, which, from a perspective of diagnostic understanding and integrated care, is able to fully grasp the pathological and problematic conditions”.
