Elena Pini
E. Pini - Un approccio sistemico e integrato al settore della salute mentale
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Elena Pini works as part of a multidisciplinary team at the Mendrisiotto and Lower Ceresio Home Care and Assistance Association. She decided to attend DAS Mental Health and Psychiatry to gain more skills in the field of mental health to transfer to her own professional context.
Where does he work and what does he do?
After working for more than 25 years in a territorial service at a Mental Health Department in Italy, for about a year and a half I have been active at the SACD Assistenza e Cura al Domicilio del Mendrisiotto e Basso Ceresio following, within a multidisciplinary team, users with mental health needs.
What motivated you to attend DAS Mental Health and Psychiatry?
The SACD management's request to pursue the title of Mental Health Specialist coincided with a personal desire to supplement my training with a specialized path that could give me broad and solid theoretical references, referring to scientifically recognized evidence, and that could provide me with additional operational tools for my clinical practice in the specificity of the Ticino context.
How would you describe your experience attending DAS?
I would describe the experience as exciting because of the wealth of solicitations, references, stimuli, and comparisons. I greatly appreciated the expertise of the lecturers, the proposals of relevant theoretical foundations with a strongly application-oriented approach to practice. I followed the lectures with renewed interest, increased curiosity and desire to deepen my knowledge. Valuable was the discussion with classmates, for the sharing of professional experiences and the realities in which they work and for the partial transposition into the classroom of teamwork, a fundamental working method in our clinical care realities.
However, attending the course undoubtedly also has a connotation of great fatigue. The simultaneity of a highly engaging new work experience and a demanding course of study, at the dawn of 50, with a large family and many other social and private commitments already under way, is undeniably a great challenge.
What are the main skills acquired? How is what you learned in the classroom transferred to your professional context?
This training, since the propaedeutic module, allowed me to acquire more skills in terms of scientific culture and research, stimulated me to critical reflection by always referring to meaningful theoretical foundations. I appreciated the non-dominance of the psychopathological slant in favor of a broader reinterpretation of psychiatric issues. The articulation of the topics covered in the various modules highlighted the many facets and complexity of our practice if we are to act with a systemic-integrated approach. Useful and necessary was the clarification of the roles and functions of "specialist" that allow me to collaborate more pertinently in the teams of my Service and with other agencies.
To whom would you recommend, and why, this training course?
I would recommend participation in this DAS to nurses who already have a few years of experience in psychiatry because of the complexity of the implications and skills needed in this area, as well as to be able to acquire skills that can be transferred to different clinical settings.