Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Current Paths in the Management of Obesity

The treatment of obesity and its related chronic symptoms is one of the major issues that world healthcare systems are facing today. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective therapies in the treatment of dysfunctional eating behaviors. In the first part of the chapter, the phenomenon of obesity will be introduced; subsequently, the role of CBT into obesity treatment will be underlined. CBT’s core strategies will be presented and analyzed: goal setting, self-monitoring, stimulus control, problem solving technique, and cognitive restructuring technique. The use of these strategies and related results is a major issue, emphasizing the need for further studies on the phenomenon of obesity, given the excellent results available in the short term, with significant weight loss, but the difficulties in keeping the results achieved in the long run. Since obesity is a chronic condition, CBT treatments must focus on different outcomes, considering weight loss as a consequence of a change in the individual’s eating style rather than as a major and only result to be pursued. Finally, we will take into account the topic of motivation in the psychological treatment of obesity since patient’s motivation assessment seems to be a major prerequisite for successful weight loss therapy

Between Exclusion and Familiarity: An Ethnography of the Mediterranean Missing Project

Persons who die or go missing in migration leave behind families with similar needs to the families of those missing in conflict and political violence. Indeed, much of what has been learned in terms of psychosocial support and forensic work in transitional contexts may be useful in such situations. However, both the political and logistical constraints of identifying the bodies of dead migrants, for example those found in the Mediterranean Sea, are extreme, with families dispersed globally and European states refusing to acknowledge that they have any obligations. Here, experience of a research project investigating the treatment of migrant bodies at the European Union\u2019s southern frontier and the needs and perceptions of families of missing migrants is discussed, with an emphasis on work with both families and practitioners

La sepoltura delle vittime delle frontiere in Italia

Mi accingo a trattare alcuni risultati collaterali delle ricerche che svolgo per anni sul tema dei migranti deceduti e dispersi lungo i confini meridionali dell’Unione Europea. Dapprima – dal novembre 2011- per il progetto Human Costs of Border Control. e successivamente -settembre 2015- per il progetto Mediterranean Missing. Tra le maglie delle ricerche sono emersi complessi meccanismi culturali messi in opera dalle comunità locali del sud Italia, per affrontare l’ingresso dei migranti deceduti in mare all’interno del luogo sacro per la collettività, i cimiteri. Se attraverso l’analisi delle procedure burocratiche attuate dalla autorità italiane emerge una severa riduzione nello status del corpo come indice di persona, lo studio delle pratiche funerarie attuate dalle comunità locali dimostra un profondo lavoro di appropriazione del lutto e di sussunzione del deceduto migrante all’interno della propria comunità dei deceduti, quali battesimi post mortem, sepolture nelle cappelle di famiglia o in luoghi simbolici, rituali nei giorni di culto dei morti, anniversari del decesso o processioni, affissioni e distribuzione delle pagette. Nel presente saggio si vuole dimostrare che in assenza -o nella inottemperanza- di norme consolidate che regolassero la gestione del lutto del migrante, le comunità locali hanno attinto alla propria antica tradizione, rendendolo parte della loro storia

Procedure di gestione delle vittime delle frontiere in Italia

Cercher\uf2 di introdurre il lettore nelle complesse modalit\ue0 di gestione dei corpi e della loro identificazione. Il ritrovamento di un cadavere apre una serie di procedure ufficiali che coinvolgono le autorit\ue0 statali e producono una considerevole mole di documentazione di vario contenuto. Accanto alle procedure ufficiale previste dalla normativa Italiana si innescano per\uf2 altre pratiche per gestire i cadaveri delle vittime delle frontiere. Vi sono infatti procedure standard previste dalla legge e altre che sono applicate nella realt\ue0. Esiste pertanto una separazione tra procedure ufficiali e quelle ufficiose. Tali osservazioni sono state fatte attraverso lo studio della svariata produzione documentale delle autorit\ue0 italiane archiviata negli uffici pubblici

Deaths at the Borders. From Institutional Carelessness to Private Concern. Research Notes from Italy

On 12th of May 2015 the VU University of Amsterdam published the Deaths at the Borders Database, an evidence-base of information retrieved from the death records of migrants who died attempting to cross the EU\u2019s southern borders to Greece, Italy, Malta, Gibraltar and Spain, and whose bodies were found and processed by the authorities of these countries, between 1990 and 2013.1 From this research it emerged that two thirds of deceased migrants were classified as unidentified and that the identification rate varied greatly depending on both place and time factors. In Italy, more specifically, data collection involved searching through documents issued within the death management system of Italian coastal towns, which have been receiving migrants by sea for the last 25 years, in Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria. The retrieval of an unidentified body begins a series of procedures involving various local authorities, and produces a considerable about of paperwork. In Italy, alongside the official procedures that must be implemented throughout the nation, there are many procedures imposed at the regional, provincial and local levels. This creates differences from place to place, leaving identification of deceased migrants to chance, dependent on the individual abilities and competences of the local authorities in the exact place where their body is found or brought from the sea. This article offers a broad picture of the Italian death management system in this regard, paying close attention to the effects and consequences of a non-standardized identification process, which has proven to be ineffective in many places where migrants bodies are found, and thereby incapable of guaranteeing the dignity of the deceased and their families. Compensations for this ineffective system are made by members of the local communities, by guardians of cemeteries, and by mayors, who do what they can to offer religious rites and burial ceremonies that (attempt, at least) to restore the memories of these too-easily forgotten dead

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants' bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

rregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these \u2018border deaths\u2019. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source \u2018evidence base\u2019 of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants’ bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

Irregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these ‘border deaths’. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source ‘evidence base’ of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself