(ZENIT News / Rome, 31.05.2024).- On March 14 an innovative multi-disciplinary consultation service opened in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. It will help young people and adolescents troubled about their personal and gender identity (gender dysphoria). The service will not only offer therapeutic support but also a space for reflection and listening to understand and alleviate the suffering that these young people might experience, explained Gabriele Sani, Head of the Psychiatry Department.
The initiative is in response to the growing number of requests for help that the Hospital receives. “This new service for gender dysphoria is designed to offer integral and personalized accompaniment, said Sani, who is also a Professor at the Catholic University and Director of several psychiatric units in the Gemelli Hospital. The service will include an exhaustive evaluation to determine the type and duration of the most appropriate treatment, involving specialists in psychiatry, neuro-psychiatry and clinical psychology.
The process begins with an initial interview, after which the young people and their families can opt to follow individual or group treatment. At the end of the therapeutic course, a certificate is given detailing the nature and duration of the treatment and the patient’s clinical conditions.
Maria Luisa Di Pietro, Directress of the Research and Studies Center on Procreative Heath of the Catholic University, underscored the importance of supporting individuals from childhood in their identity construction. She pointed out that gender dysphoria reflects a profound socio-cultural change driven by the digital age.
Federico Tonioni, researcher in psychiatry and doctor at the Gemelli Hospital, pointed out that gender dysphoria, together with other problems, such as hikikomori and learning disorders, are situated in the limit between the evolutive potentialities of the human being and the genesis of new psycho-pathologies. He stressed the need to understand these phenomena without prejudices, in a world that is increasingly complex for young people.
Eugenio Maria Mercuri, Director of the Gemelli’s Women’s, Children and Public Health Sciences Department, emphasized the importance of identifying and addressing these problems at an early age, to facilitate a healthy development of identity.
Daniela Chieffo, Head of Clinical Psychology at the Gemelli, explained that gender dysphoria refers to the discordance between the assigned sex at birth and the perceived sex, which generates significant discomfort and affects a person’s psychological wellbeing. She pointed out that gender identity is a complex process influenced by psychological and environmental factors that can evolve throughout life.
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