Where to find psychological support?
A request for help arises when a person faces problems he cannot handle. However, asking for help becomes difficult despite the great suffering experienced. There are many resistances that stand in the way of requesting for psychological help, but people who manage to overcome them, agreeing to get help, begin their journey to finally reach their goal and to find what they are looking for.
When you decide to ask for psychological support, there are different situations to which you can turn. At the forefront we can refer to the public service of the Local Health Authorities (LHA), where the Department of Mental Health (DSM) is present with all structures and services that have the purpose of taking charge of the demand related to care, assistance and protection of mental health. The first point of reference is the Mental Health Centre (CSM), where it is possible to have an adequate psychological support in view of the integrated approach, with outpatient, home, network and residential interventions. In some regions and provinces it is possible to contact the clinics and directly book a free first consultation or paying a small ticket. In other cases, however, it is necessary to present the prescription of the attending physician to have an appointment. The best thing to do is to search for contacts of the public relations office of your LHA or of the counters dedicated to psychological assistance on internet. So you will have all useful information on different services available and on how to access them.
Outside the public health network, it is possible to turn to professional psychologists, who offer their support in private studies. Here too, the National Register of Psychologists can be consulted on the internet, where it is possible to find all names of those who are qualified to practice the psychological profession.
Another useful resource for requesting psychological support is through Patient Associations. These associations are the link between the world of patients, the medical world and politics. They often provide information and support to citizens and, at the same time, are carriers of those instances that arise from their need for care and from difficulties with which they come across every day. Within Associations, it is possible to find the Self Mute Help Groups (GAMA), made up of people who have suffered, or suffer from, problems of obesity and who meet periodically with each other, under the guidance of a moderator. It is for obese people or people in the course of treatment. The GAMAs are born to create moments of confrontation, to create relationships of support and sharing of sensations, with the aim of giving a sense of understanding, a sense of integral belonging with a group of people who really understand your illness, because they live it or already experienced it. On the internet, it is possible to find all the Onlus Patient Associations to which they can turn.
References:
· Progetto Obiettivo “Tutela della salute mentale 1998-2000”
The Asociación Nacional de Personas Obesas (ASEPO) is willing to help us to disseminate this project