Prevalence and Possible Predictors of Gambling Disorder in a Sample of Students in the Healthcare Professions.

The Italian version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen questionnaire (SOGS) and a socio-demographic questionnaire were administered to a sample of 275 healthcare professions students aged 19 to 58 years (mean age = 22.17; females = 81.1%) to address the research objectives: to examine the prevalence and correlates of problem gambling in a population of university healthcare professions students in Italy. Among the sample, 8.7% (n = 24) of participants showed problem gambling and 1.5% (n = 4) pathologic gambling. Lottery and scratch cards were the most frequent type of gambling in the sample, followed by cards and bingo. Compared to females, males tend to be more involved in problem gambling and pathological gambling. Males tend to be more involved than females in different types of gambling (such as cards, sports bets, gambling at the casino). Pathological gambling is positively associated with gender, being students lagging behind the regular schedule of exams and parents' level of education. These findings have important implications in terms of prevention and intervention on gambling and pathological gambling. Universities should make available educational programs and counselling services to address this issue.

Who cares for it? How to provide psychosocial interventions in the community.

BACKGROUND: Since the Mental Health Reform Law 1978/180, in Italy mental hospitals have been progressively closed and a community-centred psychiatric care oriented to rehabilitation began. After almost 35 years, the de-institutionalization process is now complete. However, psychosocial interventions in the community are provided only rarely, although a specific mental health professional, the psychiatric rehabilitation technician, has been established in Italy. MATERIAL: Training courses and the education of psychosocial rehabilitation technicians have been analysed and the university degree has been described. Moreover, the practical and theoretical skills needed at the end of the training course have been discussed. DISCUSSION: Psychiatric rehabilitation technicians are trained to perform multidisciplinary rehabilitative and educational interventions for people with severe mental disorders and their carers. They represent an innovative professional workforce in mental health care, not yet established outside Italy, whose role and activities are essential in a community-based mental health system model. CONCLUSION: The skills needed for properly performing psychosocial interventions are not available in other mental health professionals and it is not possible that these interventions, which require in-depth training, are performed by professionals with a different background. It is advisable that psychiatric rehabilitation technicians become an integral and permanent component of an efficient community psychiatric staff.