Divorces are growing again, a course for health professionals to support families

If the break between Francesco Totti and Ilary Blasi sounds like the most striking, the shattered dream of summer 2022, in Italy divorces have never stopped and indeed, after a slight slowdown ‘due to a pandemic’ they return to grow “whirlwindly, generating alarm and concern among doctors and health professionals who ask for more training to be able to support their patients in dealing with the heavy psychological repercussions that often follow “. This was revealed by the white coats interviewed by Consulcesi Club, in a survey conducted to identify the topics on which there is more ‘hunger’ for information and updating, also in view of the expiry of the deadline for the acquisition of ECM training credits. mandatory for the three-year period 2020-2022. Hence the idea of ​​”a new course to improve the medical approach to new family systems and limit the effects of social media on children”. The latest Istat data relating to 2021 – Consulcesi recalls – speak of over a third of separations and divorces more than in 2020, with cases arriving in the courts increased by 49.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. “If until a couple of decades ago divorced or separated couples suffered from a social stigma, today fortunately this is no longer the case and divorce, although it represents the failure of the marital project, does not coincide with the failure of the person and therefore is told and socialized “, says Stefano Lagona, a psychologist specializing in couple psychotherapy, who accepted the request for updating from the professionals interviewed by Consulcesi, carrying out the course ‘Family: the role of education and the psychological consequences of divorce’ with the provider. With a focus also on the role of social media, which “by asking us to convey emotions and thoughts immediately – warns the expert – prevent the processing necessary to accept and overcome the event”. The psychologist recalls that a separation necessarily goes for six moments of rupture: from the ’emotional divorce’, represented by the dissolution of the common life project built up to then, which brings a profound sense of pain and anguish, up to the ‘community divorce’, that is the abandonment of the common home or the estrangement from friends and respective families, from which a profound sense of loneliness can emerge. “In this process of metabolization of separation and subsequent divorce – Lagona points out – time is fundamental and absolutely subjective. This may not coincide in the ex partners, nor in the children and towards this time it is necessary to have a certain care. Obviously the children they represent the subjects to be protected most, so before making such a private situation public – warns the psychologist – it is good to make sure that it has been understood, accepted, elaborated “. During the course, the expert explores the sociological and psychological changes linked to the new family systems that have emerged, in order to deal with the changes in educational methods with other professionals and identify strengths and possible criticalities in modern approaches to children. ” The objective of medical support, of all the professionals who revolve around personal care, in such a delicate moment “, for Lagona” must be to help restore the physical and mental balance of all members of the family ” . “To do this it is essential to understand the new social dynamics and psychological consequences that can derive from a divorce situation”, as reported in the Consulcesi Club course.