Responding to healthcare needs of different religious communities: implications for the Italian National Health Service

Religions and health service in Italy

Authors

Abstract

Background. One of the challenges that our Italian National Health Service is facing is the structural change of society, regarding the migratory flows recorded in the last thirty years with the consequent increase in faithful who follow religions other than the Catholic one.
Aim of the study. This study highlights the critical issues due to religious indications of different faiths which can have implications for our healthcare system. The study analyses the different concept of health, illness, well-being and pain, life and death, gender issues, rules regarding diet, fasting and drugs that can be taken by the patients. Religious norms regarding procreation, termination of pregnancy, and the use of contraceptive methods are also considered; as well as euthanasia, organ donation and the specific needs for end-of-life rites in different religious faiths, as they are presented in the literature and as they emerged in the dialogue with the national representatives of the religious faiths that
make up the Interreligious Table of Rome.
Conclusions and future perspective. The complexity of this relatively recent Italian reality necessarily leads to an in-depth analysis of religious and cultural diversity. The National Health Service must face a series of changes which concern both the adaptation of health structures and the adequate preparation of health workers, who are called upon to know how to communicate and offer care and assistance to all.

Share on

Downloads

Authors

Claudio Giovannini - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Roma Largo Francesco Vito, 1, 00168 Roma RM

Leuconoe Grazia Sisti - National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (INMP), Rome, Italy

Paola Gabbrielli - Tavolo Interreligioso di Roma, Rome, Italy

Cesare Marino - Centro per la Salute Globale Ricerca e Studi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

Claudio Pacillo - Centro per la Salute Globale Ricerca e Studi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

Angelo Farina - Centro per la Salute Globale Ricerca e Studi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

Maria Angela Falà - Tavolo Interreligioso di Roma, Rome, Italy

Walter Malorni - Centro per la Salute Globale Ricerca e Studi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

How to Cite
Giovannini, C., Sisti, L. G., Gabbrielli, P., Marino, C., Pacillo, C., Farina, A., … Malorni, W. (2024). Responding to healthcare needs of different religious communities: implications for the Italian National Health Service: Religions and health service in Italy. Annali dell’Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, 60(3), 216–224. https://doi.org/10.4415/ANN_24_03_07
  • Abstract viewed - 66 times