Reopen the schools, it is time to make up for lost time and to implement concrete measures a support of psychological well-being of ours boys.
In fact, from 12 April most of the Italian regions entered the orange zone: lessons returned to attendance until the eighth grade, while only partially from 50 to 75% for high schools.
A return in fits and starts that sees tens of thousands of girls and boys return to the classroom, in a “newspaper” that has everything except the newspaper as we know it. Matteo Lancini in recent months he has talked a lot about the need to adapt to a “new normal”: today it is still difficult to say what this actually means. And unfortunately, this “new normal” does not discount, since the beginning of the pandemic, for a segment of the population in particular: adolescents.
We certainly know that the poor investment in psychological health that the Italian government has put in place during the pandemic today finds us facing a clear answer to the question: will we be able to manage the psychological consequences of returning to our children? No, at least for now.
For all Italian adolescents, a Rubik’s cube remains to be solved which today no longer includes only the tasks that are typical of the development phase (which can involve the relationship with parents, that with peers, that with themselves and their own changing body) but also the awareness of a rupture between the before and after due to the pandemic. A pandemic that brought with it the fear of contagion, the experience of death (whether it be that of loved ones, as well as that of the hundreds of people told in the media every day for a year now), the forced isolation from that daily which is such a fundamental training ground for the stability and good growth of every boy / girl.
* President of the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy