i do care

Giovanna Bonvini
Psychologist, she works in the counseling centre of the Il Mandorlo Cooperative in Casalpusterlengo, one of the most affected town in the first wave. She deals with migration, supporting unaccompanied minors, adolescents, asylum seekers and refugees.
“With the arrival of the pandemic, in March 2020, I was active in the emergency response. My territory was among the most severely affected. I collaborated with Doctors without Borders in a project to support healthcare professionals, patients and their families. The counseling centre I work for activated a help desk. As it was not possible to meet the patients in person, I have been following up with them via remote sessions. The support focused on managing the "here and now", on the containment, and on the implementation of mechanisms of protection, useful for the management of the emergency situation. The pandemic has had very serious consequences on the psychological situation of people. More generally, it has amplified and underlined the deficiencies and fragility of the health system in the area of ​​mental health ".

Francesca Cadeo
Psychologist, she works in the clinical nutrition department of Niguarda in the context of eating disorders. As freelance professional, che deals with young adults.
"For some people, the arrival of the pandemic represented an opportunity to change pace. For others it meant confinement in limited spaces and forced relationships. At the beginning, although dramatic, the situation from the psychological point of view was clearer because it was more extreme: now the feelings of tiredness and frustration prevail, the constant demand for adaptation makes people feel incapable and therefore frustrated. Relationship is one of the key elements: on the one hand there are the relationships forced by the lockdowns; on the other hand, the relationships that have ceased to exist, that before the pandemic were the main source of exchange and creativity. For us psychologists this pandemic represents a continuous challenge: we too have been affected by the same tragedy and the empathy that is generated can be a positive tool if handled in the right way. "

Sara Calciano
Psychologist, psychotherapist and trainer in the psycho-pedagogical area. She works in education and as a psychotherapist with teenagers and adults.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic I have tried to organize myself for being able to continue to follow my patients at a distance. To create the right atmosphere at home during the sessions, I developed a ritual: every session was opened with the lighting of a scented candle, which then I turned off in the end. During the first phase of the pandemic, I also worked to train volunteers of Telefono Amico - an association that offers a service of telephone support - in the use of information technologies. It was an innovative experience and a lot interesting, which made me feel helpful in such a dramatic moment. The thing that worries me about the future is the impact of the economic crisis on mental health: fewer and fewer people will be able to afford a support. The services are deficient compared to the needs and still not very accessible for most of the people in the communities."

Sara Chinnici
Clinical psychologist, she also works as a psychologist in support to the educational system. She collaborates with centers working against domestic violence in Milan and Pioltello.
“After an initial moment of bewilderment, when we realized that the emergency situation would last longer than expected, we organized ourselves to continue to offer support to teachers, parents and children by activating a system of remote meetings. Families found themselves in very difficult situations: new worries, grief, economic difficulties. Remote interviews proved to be a good solution also to continue following the women supported by the associations dealing with domestic violence: around April-May we observed a surge in requests for psychological support. In May I started mine collaboration in a project of the Municipality of Milan to give psychological support to the elderly livign alone and in fragile conditions. It was a very strong experience. My relationship with nature helped me a lot to deal with all the pain, mine and those of the people I had to support. We are still experiencing great uncertainty, both at socio-economic and relational level."

Filomena Rosiello
Jungian trained psychoanalyst and art therapist. Coordinator of a service of orientation and support for women at "Casa delle Donne" in Milan. Responsible of one of the Women's Help Desk in the city of Milan.
“During the first lockdown, requests for help from women who suffered violence - not only at home but also in the working environment - increased a lot. It is not easy to understand if this increase is a sign of an actual increase in cases or is related to the fact that the pandemic has exacerbated existing situations of violence or, again, the availability of means of remote contact (telephone, skype etc ...) has facilitated complaints. We can say, however, that the pandemic has made quite clearly how inadequate the services offered by the system to support women who suffer violence are, a situation that was aldready clear for those who works in this field well before the health crisis. Many services exist thanks to the work of female volunteers and local associations, which, during the pandemic, have found the most creative solutions to continue helping women in difficult situations, making themselves available day and night."

Anna Rovati
Clinical psychologist, part of the Soleterre Foundation team that, starting in March 2020 at San Matteo General Hospital in Pavia, has been implementing a project to guarantee psychological assistance to inpatients, their families and health care staff of the wards involved in the management of Covid-19 cases.
“The work of the psychologists of Soleterre provides, among others activities, regular visits to the hospital wards involved in the care of COVID-19 cases, during which we meet the health care staff at all levels. Over these visits, we talk to the staff to understand needs and moods and offer support. Despite the situation in the intensive care units has definitely improved over time, people are still deeply marked by the trauma of that initial moment, when the pandemic first hit. Different research, conducted both in Italy and in various countries around the world, have shown that health professionals, who during the COVID-19 pandemic have suffered a high burden of psychological stress, show symptoms of depression, anxiety, and of post-traumatic stress disorder, with possible medium to long-term consequences on their mental health."

Francesca Bigoni
Clinical psychologist, part of the Soleterre Foundation team that, starting in March 2020 at San Matteo General Hospital in Pavia, has been implementing a project to guarantee psychological assistance to inpatients, their families and health care staff of the wards involved in the management of Covid-19 cases.
“The psychological state of healthcare workers has evolved over time. Although at the beginning of the pandemic the situation was much more dramatic from all points of view, the health care staff was able to cope better with the emergency thanks to community support, team spirit and to the illusion that it could be a temporary situtation. Today that sense of community has vanished, the energy of the emergency has given way to fatigue and tiredness of a crisis that has been going on for a long time. "

Alessandra Balestra
Clinical psychologist, part of the Soleterre Foundation team that, starting in March 2020 at San Matteo General Hospital in Pavia, has been implementing a project to guarantee psychological assistance to inpatients, their families and health care staff of the wards involved in the management of Covid-19 cases.
“The pandemic has severely compromised the human relations and therefore it created an emotional trauma for all people. The strong limitations imposed - especially at the beginning - had a devastating psychological impact, especially for the elderly who were hospitalized, who could not receive visits from their families.
Our presence in the hospital allowed for to stem this sense of loneliness and bewilderment: we werre there to exchange a few words, shake a hand, look at each other for a few minute in the eye. Small but important gestures to hold in life the hope of those who thought would never see again thier loved ones. "

Alice Busca
Clinical psychologist, systemic-relational psychotherapist. She works at the Department of Child Neuropsychiatry (in particular dealing with adolescents with food behavioral disorders) at the Mondino hospital in Pavia.
“Although children and adolescents are generally more resilient, it's hard to think this pandemic wont' have consequences on their mental health: these consequences, however, will be clearer in the years that follow. Children, who are in that phase in life where they experiment with sociality, they suddenly found themselves isolated. Teenagers, who normally begin to "free" themselves from the family, they have suffered a lot from the constriction at home. The discomfort has resulted, in the most serious situations, in an increase of cases of self-harm (cases have increased significantly even with peaks of 400%) and food related disorders. Unfortunately, in the light of the existing mental health policies in Italy, it is difficult to be optimistic about the chance to be actually able to deal with the problems that will emerge in the near future. "

Ottavia
Volunteer of the MACAO collective, she created the Listening and care help Desk in zone 4 in Milan.
“We created this service in MACAO following the first lockdown, when we realized, during the food distributions, that many women were living in very difficult conditions. At the beginning we limited ourselves to organize outdoor recreational activities in the courtyards, to offer women an informal but also safe space for exchange, discussion and listening. Then, thanks to the support of another association (Casa delle Donnne), we have decided to open a proper service of listening and guidance to support women and refer them, in case of need, to specialized facilities, centers dealing with domestic violence and other existing services. We managed to get in contact with many women and create a relationship of trust. What surprised us the most was finding cases of both physical and emotional violence even in contexts that we usually consider free from these problems. We realized that violence does not belongs only to certain environments but you can find it everywhere. Violence has always existed but the Pandemic has bought it our more strongly, it made it more evident also because, in some cases, the lockdown has exacerbated conflicts. "