To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards. v.1

Over the past few decades, we have been witnessing a radical transformation in the treatment and, overall, in the perception of mental illnesses: in the early 1900s, people with any type of mental diseases, such as mental retardation, autism as well as schizophrenia, were considered as “mad” and spent their lives in terrible and insane conditions confined in recoveries. With the evolution of the branch of Psychiatry and the increasing knowledge on the causes of mental diseases, the assessment criteria have been enhanced leading to identify a more accurate definition of each mental diseases and to define its own treatment, both pharmacological and behavioural. However, even though mental illnesses, affecting the communication, relational and social skills, can considerably influence the autonomy of the patient, these pathologies are still less socially accepted: even in these days, in consideration of the fact that they usually have a less-visible impact on the overall state of the patients rather than physical impairments, people struggle at considering them real diseases. Furthermore, an updated research report that parents whose child is diagnosed with a mental disability are less keen on accepting it and, thus, to promptly start a rehabilitation programme: as a result, this approach further worsens the kids’ conditions who might feel not accepted and enhance the sense of “taboo” over them. In conclusion, I believe nowadays, despite the significant rise of the average awareness on mental pathologies, they are still hardly accepted and, therefore, I think that more efforts should be done by local and national authorities to increase the mean knowledge on this topic.