Country members / Italy / News
Italy News Summer 2010 (August 18th 2010)
Italy News Winter 2010 (March 6th 2010)
Italy News Fall 2009
At this year’s National OT Congress, which was held in Rome between March 27th and 29th, General Elections took place. A new President was elected, Rosaria Ferrucci, and as per the newly approved AITO Constitution, both WFOT and COTEC Delegates are now permenant members of the new Council. The term of all Council members will last 3 years.
As mentioned above, our Association as been working on improving the Constitution for the past 3 years and it was approved at our last meeting with the School and Regional Coordinators in Bologna on October 3rd and 4th 2009.
During this meeting, the School Coordinators brainstormed to improve their academic programs and adapt them to the new Educational amendments that will be enforced most likely at the end of 2010. The Coordinators have been studying strategies to render their programs worthy of the new Law and reach the WFOT minimun standards.
The second issue of the Italian Scientific Journal of OT was published this summer. The periodical (2 annual issues) is called “Giornale Italiano di Terapia Occupazionale” (accronym: G.I.T.O.) and is managed entirely by the Italian OT Scientific Society (S.I.T.O.). It can be ordered (35€ for 2 issues/year) at gito@aito.it or by going on the new website www.terapiaoccupazionale.it .
As always, for more details or to leave comments, visit our NA website www.aito.it
Sincerely,
Silvio Tocco
Italian COTEC Delegate
Italy News Winter 2009
This year’s National Congress, titled “Occupational Science” will take place in Rome between March 27th and 29th. Susan Corr and Brenda MacDonald from the UK are invited lecturers among others. The deadline for reduced fees is Febuary 28th but participants can register until the Congress date. To get the Programme, click on the following link:
http://www.aito.it/public/brochure%20completa%2009.pdf
A pre-conference event took place in Bologna on January 31st and Febuary 1st to discuss upcoming elections of our NA Executive and Council. At present, there our NA is without a President and one wil be elected during the Rome Congress.
Also, during the Bologna meeting, Regional Coordinators, School Coordinators, COTEC and WFOT Delegates met with the dimissionary members of the Professinal (AITO) and Scientific (SITO) Association Councelors to discuss the new Educational amendments which require University Curriculum restructuring. This was the perfect occasion to integrate the Tuning recommendations into the future curriculums. A comparison of the 13 Italian OT Schools was done in order to make programs similar between them but without losing each school’s identity. This process will provide new graduates with similar professional competencies and possibilities to work within the CE. The ultimate goal is to respect the National amendments and reach the WFOT minimun standards.
On this line, the new OT code of Ethics was reviewed to follow the new health care reform and was based on the WFOT and COTEC Codes of Ethic.
Also, the professional competencies were translated into Italian using the ENOTHE translation method and the same was done with the basic vocabulary. This work was coordinated by Patrizia Ianes, COTEC Alternate was the group leader.
Finally but not least, the first ever Italian Scientific Journal of OT was published on December 1st 2008. The periodical (2 annual issues) is called “Giornale Italiano di Terapia Occupazionale” (accronym: GITO) and is managed entirely by the SITO Council members. It can be purchased for a mere 35€ by sending a request at gito@aito.it .
As always, visit our NA website www.aito.it for more details or leave comments.
Regards,
Silvio Tocco
Italian COTEC Delegate
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