taly pioneered deinstitutionalization 4O years ago, with the famous Law Number 180 in 1978. The mental health reform law abolished the psy- chiatric hospitals and gave back to people with mental issues the full right to citizenship. Mental health policies in Italy in the last four de- cades promoted the growth of community residential settings for people with mental disorders and aimed both at taking care of the suffering and promoting the recovery (balancing a better state of health and integra- tion without discrimination). Several residential solutions characterize the mental health systems with different levels of support and a variety of functions. Among the numerous solutions, supported housing could be defined as ultra-light. Supported housing allows people with mental health problems to relate but at the same time to undergo a light, more economical and more effective therapeutic and rehabilitative control. The drawback of the supported housing system is the local disparities: while virtuous regions have fully implemented not only national but also supranational norms regarding included society, instead in the unvirtuo- us regions families still support the full weight of assistance
