Status and development of psychiatric care in Italy. 22 years after Franco Basaglia's reform regulation no. 180

Since reforms were introduced in 1978, the treatment of mental illness in Italy is less uniform than ever before. The essential and core aspects of these reforms were not implemented in many southern provinces, but there are flourishing private clinics in Rome and other metropolitan areas, and in the highly developed regions of northern and central Italy there are institutions meeting very high standards of complementary care. However, reforms in these areas had begun as early as in 1968 in accordance with Act 431 passed that year, and in these regions the newer reforms functioned only as a catalyst. The extremely high goals set by the "Italian experiment" were not realized, but the achievements of several Italian provinces in the areas of ambulant and supporting psychiatric care can certainly be viewed as exemplary. A general trend toward increased critical examination of ways of dealing with the mentally ill from the medicinal, humanitarian, and social points of view is emerging.