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News from Italy – October 2008
Important things to note in Italy is the upcoming National Congress that will be held in Rome on March 27-29 2009. The title of the event will be “SCIENZA OCCUPAZIONALE: Strumento di riflessione per una pratica consapevole del Terapista occupazionale”. In other words, Occupational Science: A Reflection for a Conscious Occupational Therapy Practice. This will be the 2nd edition organized by the scientific committee of AITO (S.I.T.O. – Società Italiana di Terapia Occupazionale) and the first to last 3 days. We encourage colleagues from outside Italy to visit our national website’s Homepage www.aito.it under “News” for greater details.
On a final note, after a rocky situation a couple of years ago, OT is beginning to recognised by other health care professionals and slowly being integrated in our National Health System. Nonetheless, the members of our Executive and Council keep their guard up and promote our profession not only in the general population but also within the Health Ministry walls!
Stay tuned for more updates in the next months or visit our National website for weekly updates on courses, work documents and other information.
Silvio Tocco, OT
Italian Delegate for COTEC
News from Italy - March 2008
As some of you may know, there will be anticipated general elections in Italy next month (April 2008). This has complicated the road for the Allied Health Professions in creating Professional Orders. In fact, on March 4th 2008 the By-Law was set aside until a new government will take power in the Chamber and Senate. No one knows what priority this matter will have for the elected majority. This is a devastating blow to everyone’s hope to secure the occupational therapy profession amongst other already well-established health professions in Italy.
Nonetheless, in the past months, Clinical Governance has been a priority for our National Association. In fact, members of the National Executive and Council, WFOT and COTEC Delegates, OT School Coordinators and Regional Coordinators have met in Bologna early last year to encourage EBP, chart audit and quality assurance amongst OT’s in Italy. The goal was (and still is) to prepare our members to respect Professional Order standards when the By-Law will pass.
Also, our annual Professional Seminar this year took place in Rome on March 8th on Professional Competencies and Terminology. Our Association invited Sarah Kantartzis (Greece), former ENOTHE President and member of the Tuning Process to explain how the competencies and OT terminology were established. This was needed since the Italian Ministry of Health asked each professional association what their competencies were, in order to organize the Professional Orders. Although the sad news about the Orders came shortly before this event, we have nonetheless translated both general and specific competencies along with basic OT terminology. This way our Association will be ready to explain the uniqueness of our profession and the need to preserve it from other related professions
Finally, Yann Bertholom is stepping down as our National President after a 2 year term and a new interim President will be voted by the council during the next Council Meeting in April 2008. National elections will take place in spring 2009.
Hope to see many Italian colleagues in Hamburg…
For any assistance or information, do not hesitate to contact me via mail cotec@aito.it