Recent weeks have seen Italy, and the world, plunged into an emergency that is quite naturally leaving people feeling fearful and anxious. Fear is a normal and useful reaction, because it helps us to prevent, and therefore avoid, danger. Sometimes, however, these emotions become overwhelming and prevent us from seeing things in the right perspective: anxiety can become unmanageable and turn into panic. That is why, in these difficult times, we need to look after our mental health, and not just our physical health.

Isico has launched a psychological support service available not only to its patients and their families, but to anyone in Italy who needs this kind of help.

The service consists of two free Skype sessions aimed at providing users with the tools they need to manage the current situation. Dr Irene Ferrario is a psychologist who already works with our therapeutic team. “To combat the spread of the virus, our government has ordered us to stay at home, allowing us to go out only when strictly necessary” she says. “But ‘doing our bit’ isn’t always easy. Our social contacts have been drastically reduced and the future is suddenly filled with uncertainty: all this naturally makes us feel isolated, lonely and unhappy. The aim of these Skype interviews is to help patients find ways of managing the emotions generated by this situation, and also to provide them with practical advice that might enable them to deal with this enormous upheaval in our daily lives more calmly”.

Online interviews are an easy and convenient way of getting direct help from a professional without having to leave the home. What is more, this method of delivery has no detrimental impact on the usual ethical and care standards. 

“The current scientific evidence also shows that psychological support and treatments provided online are just as effective as those provided face to face” Dr Ferrario adds. “In a review of the literature carried out in 2016, which considered data from 15 years of research, more than 100 randomized controlled trials showed online psychological and psychotherapeutic interventions to be effective in treating a very broad spectrum of medical and psychiatric conditions”.