As part of a wider project on mental health in OECD countries, a series of descriptive profiles have been prepared, intended to provide descriptive, easily comprehensible, highly informative accounts of the mental health systems of OECD countries. These profiles, entitled ‘Mental Health Analysis Profiles’ (MHAPs), will be able to inform discussion and reflection and provide an introduction to and a synthesised account of mental health in a given country. Each MHAP follows the same template, and whilst the MHAPs are stand-alone profiles, loose cross-country comparison using the MHAPs is possible and encouraged.

The recent history of mental health in Italy has been one of de-institutionalisation. The significant overhaul undertaken with regards to mental health over the last years is an example of this process: as it moved away from the century-long tradition of restrictive mental health asylums (manicomi) from the late 1970s with the recent process of closures of judicial psychiatric hospitals (Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari – OPG), Italy progressively managed to integrate mental health services within community-based facilities. Focus was no longer on security and on isolating citizens suffering from mental disorders, but rather on patients’ needs and moving towards social integration and rehabilitation.