Project Detail: WHERE DID THE DREAM OF BASAGLIA END UP?

Contest:

Reportage and Documentary 2019



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Alessio Coser

 

Project Info

WHERE DID THE DREAM OF BASAGLIA END UP?

At what point is the state of mental health in Italy forty years after the entry into force of law 180?

Nearly a million people suffer from psychiatric disorders in Italy. This number is rising worldwide. According to research results from the World Health Organisation, in the next future, it will overtake the number of cardiovascular deseases, which are nowadays in first place.

There are just few talks about mental health in the world. It happens the same in Italy, even though the country is one of the pioneers in this medical field. Thanks to Franco Basaglia, a venetian psychiatrist who, between sixties and seventies, started, first in Gorizia, then in Trieste, to set up an idea: to close the italian asylums. From those experiences – and from the social and cultural reactions its generated – a new law was approved by the Government, called Law 180 or Basaglia’s law, on May 13, 1978.

It was an innovative law that decided to set up a different kind of medical services, alternative to mental hospitals; departments, mental health centers and psychiatric services for diagnosis and treatment centers were created. Italy started a revolution and a new era.

Forty years after this new course, I asked myself what happened to Basaglia’s legacy and what is going on.
This project was born to follow my desire to take a snapshot of the daily conditions of mental health patients.
I started it in autumn 2017, visiting different realities in different cities, on a transversal journey, from north to south, from Cagliari to Gorizia, from Palermo to Trento, through Rome and Trieste.

During my trip I didn’t find clear and certain answers, to be honest I didn’t look for them. I collected stories and images, trying to respect, at first, the human being and being realistic as much as possible; to set the focus on this delicate issue and to open to reflection.

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