Individualized multidisciplinary diagnostic-therapeutic-rehabilitative and care paths in the italian residential forensic psychiatric system (REMS)

Abstract

The Residence for the Execution of Safety Measures (RESM) is a psychiatric-forensic health facility housing who has been found not criminally responsible for a violent crime because of a mental illness, but also declared dangerous so that the treatment and rehabilitation in the community-based mental system are not possible. Given the dual mission of the facility of reducing social danger while supporting community integration, the authors suggest creating user-centered diagnostic-therapeutic care programs, with both rehabilitative and forensic nature, carried out by multidisciplinary teams who work in an integrated and flexible way in a three-phase project, with the purpose for the patient to take responsibility and to develop alternative strategies to violence.