Illness Management and Recovery (IMR): Implementation in an Italian Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions

Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) is a manualized psychosocial intervention developed to guide patients towards their recovery. This study presents the implementation of IMR within the Integrated Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addictions in Ferrara, Italy. IMR was provided from April 2017 to July 2021 by trained professionals, who recruited psychiatric outpatients with different diagnoses, in a stable phase of the illness and motivated to engage in the program. The modules and sessions were tailored according to the specificity of the patients (e.g., diagnoses, age) and the services providing it. The characteristics of the patients and the services who adopted IMR were extracted from electronic health records, and by a summary form filled out by providers. The IMR scale (IMRS) was completed at the end of the intervention. A total of 126 patients completed the IMR intervention: they were mainly men (61.1%), with a mean age of 40.1 (12.9) years old, significantly heterogeneous for psychiatric diagnosis and duration of illness (p <.001). IMR was provided mainly in a group format (82.5%) at the community mental health (54.8%) and addiction (41.2%) services. A wide variability was observed in terms of number [1–10/person] and type of module administered, average duration of the intervention/user (9.6, [2–38 months]) and number of sessions/user (21.4 [1–70]). IMRS showed a high correlation between patient and provider (Pearson, p =.001). This study showed the feasibility of the implementation of the IMR intervention within an entire department, with a great variability in terms of patients’ clinical characteristics, number, and type of IMR module received. Future research should include a standardized measurement of outcomes to tailor the intervention.