Building a child paediatric/neuropsychiatric network. The need for an agreement and objectives
Maria Luisa Scattoni, Giovanna Romano, Antonella Costantino, Francesco Nardocci, Paolo Biasci, Mattia Doria, Rinaldo Missaglia, Federica Zanetto, Alberto Villani, Susanna Mantovani
Neurodevelopmental disorders require early diagnosis and prompt therapeutic intervention. Developmental checks, if properly implemented, may be a means of strategic monitoring, ensuring the application of sustainable early recognition strategies. On the 4th November 2017, the National Institute of Health, The Italian Society of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry, with the Italian Federation of Paediatricians, the Cultural Association of Paediatricians, the Union of Family Paediatricians and the Italian Society of Paediatricians, reached an agreement as part of the «National observatory on the monitoring of autism spectrum disorders», in order to encourage the implementation of developmental checks and establish a formal link between paediatrics and child neuropsychiatry all over Italy. The education system is also crucial in a child’s first years and, thanks to the establishment of an integrated 0-6 system, it will now be possible to promote new, more robust professionalism and new local networks also between educators and health workers.
Keywords
Neurodevelopmental disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, early recognition, monitoring, developmental checks.