The Reconstruction of Puglianello's Mental Health Center: A Tale of Community, Loss, and Controversy

The reconstruction of the Mental Health Center in Puglianello cost more than a million euros. And it took 7 long years to complete, during which patients had to make do in a small nearby location where it was impossible to carry out the activities for which the center excelled: theater, music, establishing relationships. Thus begins, in a statement, Serena Romano, president of "La Rete Sociale". "A damage - she continues - that seemed in the end compensated by the new, spacious and welcoming structure, and especially by the garden with a bowling alley, benches, a small amphitheater, stone paths winding among trees and greenery next to a stream. But right on these not even 100 meters of garden, the administration of Puglianello led by the honorable Rubano, has planned to build a road for heavy vehicles. Why right there? Wasn't there an alternative? We asked him for a meeting to discuss the issue, but he denied us." Romano adds: "But in the meantime, with the elements we have, we can reconstruct this story that is incredible, especially when compared to the previous mayor: Tonino Bartone, who died prematurely, was fundamental for the development of mental health in Puglianello. Because it was Bartone who found the space on which, many years ago, the Csm - a former barracks in the central square of the town, opposite the Town Hall - was built, and donated it to the Asl provided that it adapted it to the needs of the patients. Thanks to the proximity of the municipal building, and thanks to a conception of 'diversity' that made no distinction between the mentally healthy and ill, the doors of the Town Hall were always open for users who wanted to exchange a few words with the mayor. And when he saw the dismay in everyone's eyes - staff and patients - at the prospect of moving to the old hospital in Cerreto while waiting for the recent works that lasted 7 years, it was he who went out of his way to find a provisional headquarters in the same square of Puglianello." For Romano, therefore, "it is even more disconcerting the decision to run that road right through the gardens of the Mental Health Center, expropriating the Asl that had by then become its owner. What reasons of 'public utility' were put forward to override the reasons of 'public health utility'? Couldn't the road be run through the many adjacent agricultural lands connecting it directly to the provincial road? These and other questions - she concludes - remain suspended pending access to the documents."