FERMO “I’m watching my son fade away day after day, he’s lost more than 15 kilos, he just cries and asks me to die. Is it possible that nothing can be done?” The father of a young man from Fermo tells his desperation. In his early thirties, his story is that of a descent into the abyss of drug addiction, from which he couldn’t emerge, attempts at rehabilitation in recovery communities interrupted by escapes, the last one while he was in a facility in the province.
INSIGHTS
The choice
The turning point came when the court, assessing his social dangerousness, ordered his placement in a Rems, a residence for the execution of security measures. These are health facilities that have replaced, for about ten years, the former judicial psychiatric hospitals. But there are very few places. In the Marche, where there is only one facility with 20 places in the Pesaro area, as in all of Italy. A national capacity of less than 700 units, few compared to the needs, with very long and slow-moving waiting lists. While waiting for something to become available, since there is a precautionary measure against him, the man has no choice but to be hospitalized.
The measures
“My son is not a delinquent, he is a person who has problems with addiction and needs help,” explains the father. “We hoped that these measures could finally lead him to rehabilitation, to get out of the tunnel and get his life back. Instead, he has been hospitalized since January and we are witnessing his collapse day after day without being able to do anything. He is languishing in a hospital bed, seeing him makes my heart sink. He is really being reduced to a larva, he has lost a lot of weight, he is just skin and bones, he has a cadaverous color.”
Despair
“Hearing him say: dad, let me die – the parent continues – is terrible, I see that he is losing all hope. We have asked to take him to some other facility, but apparently nothing can be done, we have to wait for the list to go down, because given the precautionary measures against him, the only alternative to a psychiatric ward is placement in a Rems. But how much longer will we have to wait? I fear that when a place becomes available it will be too late”.
