The perspectives of Mental Health Services make us reflect on the theoretical basis, the mental health professionals’ responsibilities, the mandates of care and control. In Italy there is also the problem of the organization of the Departments of Community Psychiatry, that are not the same in different Regions. Furthermore there is a unity of neurology and psychiatry (neuropsychiatry) for childhood and adolescence, while in adult psychiatry the two disciplines are separated since many years. The need to modernize the organization also to make it more appropriate to address the wide gap between demand and supply, and new needs in a renewed relationship with users and their movements, are emphasized.
Keywords: Mental health, skills, paradigms of psychiatry, services-user movement in psychiatry