San Patrignano. Lessons from the Italian experience

This chapter focuses on a retention in treatment study carried out in San Patrignano (SanPa), Italy’s largest therapeutic community (TC) working with drug addiction. Study outcomes are connected to some of this TC’s characteristics which are also to be found in other Italian contexts. In the first part, after presenting some data on public and private services dealing with addictions, the authors outline an Italian TC model and its main characteristics. The second and third parts focus on SanPa’s history and organization. The fourth and fifth parts introduce two independent follow-up studies promoted by SanPa as well as the aforementioned retention factor study, Community Outcome. Important results emerge on the ability of this TC to retain users and contribute to their complete recovery, as drug-free people reintegrated into society and the labor market.