Intellectual disability: an Italian perspective

Italy is a country that has a very long tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, of offering assistance to people with all kinds of disabilities. The approach taken to intellectual disability in recent times can be divided into two periods: before and after the enactment of Law 180 in 1978. That law set in train a profound reform of Italy’s public sector psychiatric care, which principally involved the closure of the psychiatric hospitals and the establishment of a system of community care.