When you fall ill, unfortunately, in addition to a physical malaise, there is also a certain feeling of psychological discomfort . In fact, more and more people with disabling diseases, especially if it is a matter of rare diseases, suffer from a particular form of “abandonment”.
Often, in such situations, one feels alone and unable to explain and make others understand their situation and moods.
From today, however, the sick have a new tool to combat their situation and better experience the discomforts that often incurable diseases can bring, it is narrative medicine .
It consists of a form of treatment based on linguistic and communicative tools and skills , which is associated with ordinary and strictly “physical” curative medicine.
The importance of this method of treatment has already been widely recognized and accepted, which is why a particular meeting was organized in two days to discuss and draw up the first guidelines for the realization of the so-called narrative medicine.
The ideas of the “Experimental Laboratory of Narrative Medicine”, promoted in conjunction by the City of Florence and the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology, are therefore incorporated and structured .
These initiatives, as well as to deepen the theme and raise awareness among narrative medicine, are aimed at offering health, social and socio-health workers more knowledge on the subject but above all guidelines for the correct management of the situations that arise. they create with the sick in question. In fact, only through the application of precise directives will it be possible to help the sick to live better and to overcome the difficulties and intrinsic difficulties in invalidating diseases.
Narrative medicine can also develop more and more, to become an adjuvant tool for diagnosis and treatment in a more personalized way than each patient.
In this way, through tools such as the interview conducted with narrative skills, reflective writing and semi-structured interviews, it will be possible to make the story a tool for real care. This can therefore prove to be a great opportunity for the quality of life and hospitalization of each individual; for this reason, the main guidelines have already been drawn up and are hoped for to be disseminated at national level.