A sheltered family home will open in Tirana, Albania. It is for eight women that are affected by mental health problems, and who were previously admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
It is a new social-health model, which is based on the agreement that was signed by Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia (Community of Sant'Egidio) and Ogerta Manastirliu, who is the Minister of Health (Albania).
The improvement in psychiatric health care consists of leaving behind the hospitalization in large institutions. This happened in Italy as well.
Therefore, the alternative is a family home with operators that continuously attend professional qualification courses. This can occur thanks to the collaboration of the specialized doctors that are from Italy.
The agreement also provides support for reintegration into families and communities, by leading in this way to a good practice that inspired the creation of a project, which is called the "Red House" (Tirana). This program is about establishing the Sant'Egidio facility, which houses people with mental health problems, and some of them come from Elbasan.
An agreement between Sant'Egidio and the Albanian government defines a new social-health model
