We want to prevent mental illness and provide integrated (medical and social) care for people with severe mental illness, facilitating the recovery process. This can be done by providing mental health care in the community.

Deinstitutionalization led to a decrease in psychiatric hospital beds during the last decades, and better outpatient care in many countries. New treatments became available, such as modern psychological treatments, digital psychiatry, new recovery oriented approaches and the introduction of peer-experts. Prevention of mental Illness in the community, especially for younger people, is done is some area’s but by far not everywhere.

In the meantime, research shows that the prognosis of severe mental illness has not improved over the last decades. We need better implementation of effective practices, better collaboration with consumers and significant others, more use of digital psychiatry and better integration of various services. But how can we achieve this?

We will discuss how we can prevent (severe) mental illness and improve its outcome in the future by using modern community oriented and digital approaches.

You are cordially invited to come to Italy, the birthplace of deinstitutionalization since the Basaglia Mental Health Act in 1978, to contribute to this inspiring conference in Verona, and be part of the process of shaping the future of community mental health care.