The protocol for infancy and adolescence of the SAIFIP, San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital Complex, Rome, Italy

Abstract

The here-expressed considerations of the authors are based on their own personal work experience as members of the interdisciplinary team of the Servizio di Adeguamento tra Identita Fisica e Identita Psichica - SAIFI P - (Centre for the treatment of gender identity disorders and sex-reassignment therapy) operating within the framework of the Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery Unit at the San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital Complex in Rome, Italy since 1992. The SAIFIP team has set up a protocol that offers, within the Italian National Government Healthcare Plan, integrated and interdisciplinary clinical services for persons affected by gender identity disorders that lay emphasis on the psychological, medical-surgical and social-legal aspects implied in the process of sex-reassignment therapy. Said protocol originates from the indispensable integration and coordination of the various reference theories and their models which form the training basis of the various healthcare providers and from the absolute necessity to organize the various therapeutic procedures (endocrinology therapy, surgery, counselling, psychotherapy, sociotherapy) in synchronization with the patient, with his/her family and with his/her extended ecosystem. During recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for aid both on the part of adolescents and children with problems related to gender identity, and children of individuals with gender identity disturbances. These conditions would appear to co-exist along with a state of acute intra-psychic and relational suffering, often linked to behavioral and emotional difficulty. Subsequently, an ad hoc area to deal with children and adolescents has been created within SAIFIP.