Disability, Work and Inclusion in Italy
Better Assessment for Better Support
One in seven working age adults identifies as having a disability in OECD countries. Many of them are excluded from meaningful work and have low levels of income and social engagement. Governments can help create an environment that supports social and labour market integration for people with disability. This report reviews the effectiveness of the social protection system for people with disability in Italy and summarises the results of a pilot carried out in four regions testing an alternative disability assessment. The current assessment process can sometimes deny services to people in need of support while being generous to people with significant health problems but who are not experiencing severe disability. A disability assessment that takes medical and functional aspects into account helps to direct services and resources to those most in need and to harmonise access to disability support across the country. Implementing disability reform has proved to be difficult in Italy in the past decade. This report provides evidence that reform can improve outcomes for people with disability.
Also available in: Italian
Piloting a new disability assessment in four regions of Italy
This chapter discusses the results from a pilot in four regions of Italy of a new disability assessment tool that would add the perspective of functioning to the current medically based assessment of disability status in Italy, the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS). The analysis includes observations from 3 242 individuals participating in the pilot in late 2022 and early 2023 (of which 1 327 in Lombardy region, 1 223 in Campania region, 510 in the Autonomous Province of Trento and 182 in the Autonomous Region Sardinia). Using a statistical approach, the chapter evaluates the performance of the WHODAS questionnaire and concludes that the tool delivers valid, reliable, and scientifically robust distributions of WHODAS scores in all four pilot regions and that social workers in Italy are well place to conduct WHODAS interviews effectively. The report also compares the WHODAS scores of the pilot sample with the corresponding civil invalidity percentages, as pilot participants had been assessed in both ways, and presents options on how the WHODAS questionnaire could be integrated into the current way of assessing civil invalidity in Italy.
Also available in: Italian
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