Antonio Di Pietrantonio
A. Di Pietrantonio - Tools and Knowledge for Guiding and Coordinating Care in Social Psychiatry
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Antonio Di Pietrantonio, a clinical nurse specialist at Casa Paganini Rè in Bellinzona, shares his experience with the Mental Health and Psychiatry DAS: a program designed to develop a personal and professional profile focused on caring for vulnerable individuals and assuming coordination and leadership roles in mental health and psychiatric nursing with a social focus.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?
My name is Antonio Di Pietrantonio. I am 30 years old and work as a nurse specializing in mental health and psychiatry at Casa Paganini Rè in Bellinzona, a state-of-the-art senior care facility with a family-like atmosphere surrounded by nature.
Why did you choose to enroll in the DAS in Mental Health and Psychiatry?
I chose to pursue the DAS in Mental Health and Psychiatry because I firmly believe that caring for one’s inner well-being cannot be a secondary concern; rather, it must be considered a top priority—not only in acute care or emergency settings, but also in everyday life and across the entire community, from children to the elderly.
The training program offers an interactive learning experience designed to enhance professional skills and foster critical thinking. What specific benefits has this approach brought to your professional experience?
The knowledge and skills acquired during the DAS program contribute to the development of a solid and versatile professional profile. In my workplace, I have sought to apply the critical thinking skills I have developed and to prioritize caring for others in their most intimate dimensions, grounding my clinical practice in scientific evidence (EBP). In practice, I continue my work as a nurse in direct contact with people, but with a greater focus on their inner state—not merely as objects of medical care, but as human capital, a functional resource, and a treasure to be safeguarded.Within my facility and my department, I remain the go-to person for the most complex cases, and I often have the opportunity to provide guidance or foster new perspectives on specific clinical situations.This wealth of knowledge, combined with solid communication and management soft skills, facilitates the assumption of a role in care coordination and leadership, all within the epistemological framework of social psychiatry.
Is there a lesson, an experience, or a theme that particularly stood out to you during the program and that you’d like to share?
In addition to psychopathology, I found the courses in ethnopsychiatry to be very stimulating; this discipline allows us to adopt a different perspective, one that takes into account diverse cultural sensibilities in an increasingly “liquid” (to use Zygmunt Bauman’s term) and pluralistic society.
Would you recommend this DAS to a colleague? Why?
I recommend this to colleagues interested in developing a personal and professional profile focused on caring for vulnerable individuals and taking on coordination roles. There are numerous employment opportunities in the nursing and social-educational fields: e.g., clinics, halfway houses, workshops and supported living facilities, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, home care and assistance, private practices, etc. Additionally, SUPSI Continuing Education offers an interesting catalog of specializations in this area (e.g., CAS in Forensic Nursing; CAS in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, …).