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SOS deaths due to overdose. USA looks at the San Patrignano model

On November 9th the “San Patrignano model” was presented during a conference at Columbia University in New York. Scientists, doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists from Weill Cornell Medical College, from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, from Harvard Medical School, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute, (Columbia University Medical Center), and researchers from the University of Bologna – Ce. P.Ci.T. and Explora – Research and statistical analysis, Padua, together with Letizia Moratti and some representatives of the Community of San Patrignano, discussed the dramatic statistics of deaths caused by overdose in the US (70,000 in 2017), questioning about possible solutions. The Italian researchers presented the study conducted about San Patrignano, on the evaluation of the OUTCOME of the therapeutic community, started in April 2013 and still ongoing for follow-up activities, with the aim of evaluating effectiveness in practice of the various therapeutic/rehabilitation processes. The comforting and scientifically validated data were received with attention, in the hope that similar initiatives could be implemented in the USA and offer a way out of the dramatic opioid epidemic. To underline the effectiveness of the model of the therapeutic communities, the intervention made by Phaedon Kaloterakis, MWS (Vice Director of Kethea, Greece and Vice President of EFTC European Federation of Therapeutic Communities), which testified that such positive results can be extended to the model of therapeutic community in general.

Please find below the pdf with the summary of the research

In the same day, in another part of the world, in Glasgow, the capital of Scotland, San Patrignano experience was showcased at the conference Recovering Connections:  Creating Flourishing Communities. The accent of the conference was on recovery: not only it improves the lives of those who successfully walk a recovery path, but enriches and brings value to the whole community. San Patrignano is at the forefront in supporting this concept, now scientifically certified by the recent study on the Social Return of Investment, SROI,  that has calculated how much value San Patrignano can create in relation to the donation/input received. This study tried to give a monetary value to the positive social impact provided by San Patrignano, and to this purpose considered three main indicators: drug addiction costs to the National Health Services, the cost of crime (according to the daily fee paid by the State for each prisoner), and the value generated by San Patrignano who reintegrates tax-payer citizens in society (260 in 2017). For each euro received, San Patrignano has given back to society 5.21 euros. Recovery is not only an ethical choice, respectful of human rights, but is also convenient from the economic point of view!


15 November 2018
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