| Abstrakt: |
Eustachio Loperfido (1932–2008), known as Nino, was an Italian child neuropsychiatrist whose contribution to the historic reforms of 1970s led to "a peaceful revolution" in mental health services. In Bologna, Loperfido directed a major maternal-child agency service for many years and, with his psychoanalytic training, added political activism to the clinical programs that improved women's and children's mental health and well-being. He was Bologna's Councilor for Mental Health from 1970 to 1980; in 1968, as the new director of the town of Imola's children's residential institute (a de facto mental hospital), Loperfido started to modify the institution which soon was closed down. This took place within a new political climate where the subsequent well-known Law 180, inspired by Franco Basaglia, replaced public psychiatric hospitals with innovative community-based mental health services throughout Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
