The University of Messina has offered free mental support services to students, staff and the local community, through the creation of a special unit: “CERIP - Center for Research and Intervention in Psychology”. The center offers psychological support to students in the path to identify their strengths and weaknesses, to enhance their cognitive, emotional, relational and behavioral resources, in order to prevent and/or reduce the risk of occurrence of conditions of discomfort and mental illness. CERIPs main goal is to promote the psychological well-being of the students and to foster their personal and cultural growth.
The University of Messina, through the CERIP (Center for Research and Psychological Intervention) proposed collaboration agreements for research, intervention and training activities with schools for the academic years 2018/19 and 2019/20. This collaboration aims to promote the well-being of the population, to guarantee psychological support aimed at small groups or individual students with learning deficits or behavioral disorders. The collaboration is also intended to be extended to other projects in order to raise awareness and provide information to teachers, families and public and private institutions. This includes publications and local, national and international events- conferences, seminars, study days, educational activities, experiential workshops for children, adolescents and families and adults who want to resume their studies.
The CERIP has launched a project relating to intellectually gifted people. The group of people under study are those who are classified as gifted but either lack formal education, and/or have lower social or work status: known as “underachieving gifted” who have a higher than average intellectual level (beyond 2 SDs). The main objective of the project is to provide psychological counseling aimed at evaluating and setting up intervention for rehabilitation and empowerment. First of all, it intends to conduct experimental research to investigate the antecedent factors that trigger under-performance in gifted subjects, the neural correlates and necessary enhancement interventions. Secondly, it will develop collaboration agreements with associations that deal with the gifted both nationally and internationally. Thirdly it will provide a standardized and individualized functional assessment of the gifted subjects who request it. Finally it will design and implement all the programs and individualized educational and rehabilitative actions necessary to connect IQ and performance and promote the well-being of gifted people.
An online psychological counseling service was activated in 2020. The initiative promoted by CeRIP in close collaboration with the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Messina serves students, their families and all citizens. It provides practical psychological suggestions to address and overcome concerns, fears and uncertainties. The service provided by psychotherapists who have been active in the health sector for years, who have freely given their time to deal with the psychological problems resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic.
