Psicoeducazione attraverso il cinema: esperienza nel Day Hospital psichiatrico della Sapienza Università di Roma

Increasing evidence suggests that significantly greater barriers exist to receipt of mental health care in comparison with physical health care. Worldwide, more than 70% of young people and adults with mental illness do not receive appropriate treatment from health care staff. Evidence indicates that factors increasing the likelihood of avoidance or inappropriateness of treatments include the lack of knowledge to identify features of mental illnesses (insight) and the prejudice and discrimination against people who have mental illness (stigma). The aim of this study is to increase awareness of illness, increase the awareness of the need to treat the mental illness, increase the awareness about the public stigma and develop social skills to improve the relationship with others. We selected 52 patients who were divided in two groups, the first group has followed a program of psychoeducation through the use of films, and the second group was used as a control sample. The first group showed statically significant decrease in subscales Awareness of Illness, Awareness of Effects Obtained with a Treatment of Scale to assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) and decrease of subscale Disclosure of Stigma Scale, compared to second group (p <0.05). Our results show how stereotypes represented in movies can influence crucially real life. Therefore our intervention, by redefining and discussing contents of the film, proposes to reduce stigma and increase awareness of illness.