Regarding the conference "The awakening of conscience. Treating and caring for people in a vegetative state and minimally conscious"

"The awakening of consciousness. Treating and taking care of people in a vegetative state and minimally conscious" is the title of the conference that will take place tomorrow at the Catholic University from 14.30 to 19.00 at the Sala Blacks da Oleggio in largo Gemelli, 1.

The event, open to the public and aimed in particular at family members of people in a Vegetative State and Minimal Consciousness, intends to focus public attention on the daily problems that family members and social and health workers encounter in the care and assistance of these patients, including children, adults and the elderly.

The Director of the Bioethics Center, Adriano Pessina, explains that: "the title of the conference refers to the attempt to awaken the conscience of society towards the rights of citizenship of all those people who today guarantee, often in conditions of real economic, social and psychological abandonment, the care and assistance of patients affected by very serious brain injuries. The intent is to establish a dialogue and reflection with the protagonists of this assistance work and to set the conditions to indicate what are the critical points of a welfare system that, especially in a moment of crisis, risks penalizing precisely those who need it most."

The conference also aims to give a voice to family members and representatives of their associations in order to create a network, also of a cultural nature, capable of making people perceive the importance of a problem that cannot be traced back only to the exasperated debates that have concerned, in recent years, these situations.

The conference will also present the results of the CCM National project "Functioning and disability in Vegetative States and States of Minimal Consciousness" wanted by the Ministry of Health and coordinated by Matilde Leonardi, in which 78 Italian centers, 39 associations and federations of family members who take care of people in a Vegetative State and Minimal Consciousness participated. This is the largest research ever carried out in Italy for the sample taken into consideration (480 caregivers including operators and family members) which has the merit of being able to offer an overview of the needs, problems and emotional and psychosocial aspects experienced by those who take care of these patients.

The conference is organized by the University Center for Bioethics of Università Cattolica in collaboration with the IRCCS "C. Besta" Neurological Institute Foundation. Among the various speeches, there will also be reports by Paolo Fogar, Head of the FNATC Association (National Federations of Head Trauma) and Fulvio De Nigris, Head of the "La Rete" Association.