The Italian experience and its implications

In May 1978, the Italian Parliament passed Law 180, the main aims of which were gradually to dismantle the mental hospitals and to institute a comprehensive and integrated system of community psychiatric care. Thus, Italy provides an important opportunity for assessing the effect of extensive change in the pattern of provision of psychiatric care. Systematic evaluative studies of the Italian psychiatric reform are becoming more frequent, although there exist in the English language literature many accounts of relatively short visits to Italian psychiatric services. These latter exemplify a wide range of views, from overt enthusiasm on the one hand (e.g. Lacey, 1984), to hostility on the other (e.g. Jones & Poletti, 1985). This editorial attempts a brief review of the reform and its effects, with particular emphasis on quantitative aspects, and we consider issues which may be relevant with regard to changes in the organization of psychiatric care in countries other than Italy.