“Reading Wordsworth in Milan”. Alternative Strategies in a Difficult Engagement Case with Severe Negative Symptoms.
Poster A129, Thursday, October 20, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
S. Flauto1, M. Sarno1, M. Fontanella1, M. Benatti1; 1Programma 2000, A.O. Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda, Milano, Italy
The difficulty of psychotherapy engagement in emerging early psychosis is greater when negative symptoms and lack of awareness are present. Alternative non-therapeutic engagement strategies can be of primary help to contact the patient and establish an alliance. A 23 years old male patient, included in a multidimensional intervention program (Programma 2000) and assessed (HoNOS, BPRS, DAS ), showing high level of negative symptoms, withdrawal and depression, dropped out twice psychotherapy interventions. Engagement was possible only involving the patient in a sport group, on a first step, because he is keen on sport. Afterwards, from sport stimulation, it was possible to push him to try again with studies and finish high school. A team for scholastic support was carried on to help him attend his school-leaving examination. Therefore, it was taken advantage of this opportunity to create a contact both in verbal and non-verbal ways. Especially during English Literature lessons, he had the chance to share personal cognitions and emotions. The use of mental maps turned out to be very helpful for him to organize ideas and fix them in memory. On the other hand, he got in touch with emotions reading romantic english poetry, like Wordsworth. From the time he started, during 6 moths he attended always more classes and more regularly. Moreover, in 3 years tests results (HoNOS and BPRS) he showed less depression symptoms (BPRS: depression from 6 to 2).
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions