ROME (AFP) – A fatal flogging by a hospital psychiatrist allegedly by a former patient has sparked calls for improved mental health services in Italy.
Police on Sunday arrested a 35-year-old Italian man to investigate an attack on Dr. Barbara Capovani. A 55-year-old psychiatrist was repeatedly beaten in the head with a metal bar as she left her job at a hospital in Pisa, northern Italy after doctors at the same hospital said her Declared brain dead and donated her organs.
Investigators said her assailant was a former patient who later violated her law multiple times, including insulting her on social media and beating her doctor in another northern city. bottom. The attack on the psychiatrist was the latest in a series of violent attacks against hospital staff in recent months in Italy.
Citing her murder, Italy’s health minister called a meeting later in the week on Monday to push for reforms in mental health care.
Health Minister Orazio Schiracci said that in recent months work had already begun on reforming mental health care procedures. “We have to make sure that what happened to Barbara Capovani never happens again,” Schillaci said.
A 1978 law closed psychiatric hospitals in Italy and made all psychiatric care voluntary, with very few exceptions. Critics say the law envisioned a network of neighborhood public health facilities to provide mental health care, but it was never fully developed.
Police said, citing surveillance video, the suspect waited for doctors to leave the hospital, but returned the day after he didn’t see her. As she crouched down, the man bloodied her head and mortally wounded her.
An official from the Ministry of Health thanked her family for allowing her organ donation. I explained that I am happy to accept new patients. Last year’s incident involved a machete attack on a doctor discharging from a hospital in the Milan area. A psychiatrist in the northern city of Mantua was beaten with a stick because he believed the woman did not need to be hospitalized. Doctors at hospitals in the Naples area were kicked and beaten by relatives of patients who demanded medical certificates.
