Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, November 14 2019 – Integrate the demand for psychological support with the offer of public and private services present in the area. With this objective, the "Neighborhood Psychologists" project began last April, promoted by the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy in collaboration with WeMi, the network of physical spaces dedicated to the home services system of the Municipality of Milan. In eight months, the professionals selected by the Order and hosted by WeMi listened to and oriented almost seven hundred people, considering the direct access to the spaces present in the nine municipalities and the requests received through the local associations.

“The network of WeMi spaces – declares the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti – was created to create hubs, recognizable reference points within which all citizens could access the complete offer of home services present in city ​​and, in particular, in each neighborhood; both the services of the Municipality of Milan and those activated by the Third Sector. The initiatives and activities aimed at individuals and families have grown in recent years and now is the time to recompose and reorder them because the picture risks being fragmented. The intention is to add new services so that these hubs increasingly become a point of reference for the different territories. The 'Neighborhood Psychologists' project goes precisely in this direction and has had the merit of introducing users to these places that are different from those known up to now. Based on these results, we will start discussions for the continuation of the initiative and we will try to bring new services closer to WeMi".

“Mental health and psychological well-being are fundamental aspects of the quality of life, not only of individuals, but also of communities. In Lombardy and in particular in Milan there are very valid services and structures that citizens can turn to, however it remains difficult to intercept complex needs, linked both to personal and family difficulties and to problems such as poverty and the risk of social exclusion - underlined Riccardo Bettiga, President of the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy -. The psychologist must be increasingly closer to people, and this is why we are working to extend the experience of Neighborhood Psychologists, an initiative whose model is potentially replicable up to the national level".

The project allows people to contact neighborhood psychologists for free and without the need for an appointment, in the offices and according to the calendar shown on the portal www.wemi.milano.it. In synergy with the WeMi operators who have been active in the neighborhoods for several years and have therefore created contacts with all the actors present in the area, they offered a free and competent first listening, directing every citizen to the structures and solutions available in the area. The initiative highlighted the need to intensify collaboration between the services active in the area, with the aim of providing an adequate and timely solution to even the most complex needs. We are therefore working to give continuity to the service and strengthen it in this direction.

“Despite the social, cultural and material peculiarities of the various neighborhoods, in recent months hardships and problems have emerged that are decidedly transversal to the city of Milan, i.e. independent of the area in which one lives or concentrates one's interests. The most numerous reports concern loneliness, depression (which afflicts one in five Milanese), parent-child relationships, neighborhood relationships - commented Barbara Bertani, project coordinator for the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy, and Armando Toscano , coordinator -. There are also many requests related to the difficulty of assisting elderly parents, family members with disabilities or major chronic pathologies. Finally, we collected some cases of violence and mistreatment, which were immediately directed to the competent channels."