Don Vincenzo Barbante.
“Amis, ve racumandi the shack”, were one of the last phrases of Don Gnocchi before dying. And that warning, judging the accounts of the “shack”, or of the foundation created by the proclaimed priest blessed who had been the Alpine chaplain, was respected. Economic consolidation, technological innovation and proximity are in fact the three pillars that emerge from the 2024 budget approved by the Don Gnocchi Foundation, which remains a point of reference in Italian health. In continuity with the charism of Blessed Carlo Gnocchi, for an increasingly human welfare, near, just, who knows how to take care of the most fragile people, as explained by Don Vincenzo Barbante, president of the Don Gnocchi Foundation, a reference figure with a long experience in the socio-welfare field.
What are the key data of the budget that best tell the work done?
First of all, it is important to emphasize that our reality despite the difficulties encountered in the socio-welfare sphere has managed to close with a positive balance by carrying on both the assistance of the elderly and people with disabilities and the rehabilitation, which remains the living nucleus of our work, in the various setting in which we operate. The turnover exceeds 315 million euros, and is growing 10 million. We can say that we substantially close in a draw thanks to the support of many benefactors who allow us to face the failure to comply with the tariff adaptation by many regions in which we are present.
And the voices that most testify to the consistency between numbers and mission?
The most important cost is that of staff, which absorbs over 60 percent of our resources. We have 6280 collaborators, of whom just over four thousand employees and others who work with us as professionals or within cooperation. Numbers that have remained stable, also slightly growing compared to the previous year and which confirm the ability to guarantee continuity and stability in the services. We have twenty -five significant structures in the area, in nine regions, and twenty -eight territorial clinics, with which we cover over fifty locations where we are present with residential and outpatient services. We manage to cope with a constantly growing demand for health.
What strategic priorities for 2025?
With a view to strengthening territorial services, also thanks to the support of scientific research, we are continuing to the development of television rehabilitation, through the use of advanced technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence with a view to improving quality, increasing the number of possibilities of responses to needs and enhancement of human resources. In parallel, we are strengthening the offer of home services: both the general assistance (RSD) and the open formula, up to the most delicate and demanding sphere of home care in palliative care. We believe that in these services our ability to interpret the perspective of the country is played, which focuses decisively on the strengthening of the territorial network. This is also accompanied by the development of semi -residential and outpatient services.
An area in which you are strongly investing is the rehabilitation aimed at people with serious brain problems…
We are today, in Italy, the reality with the greatest number of interventions in the so -called “code 75”, that is, assistance to patients with serious cerebralsions acquired. Finally, despite being well structured in northern Italy, we are concentrating a significant part of our investments and our planning in the South, to offer concrete and quality answers even in those even more fragile areas of the country.
What is the policy you carry on?
2024 was a year of expansion for the Don Gnocchi Foundation, with over 360 thousand assisted patients and more than two million outpatient services. A reality managed with business criteria, but faithful to its mission: take care of people and their life projects. Ours is a work of Providence made possible by the work and dedication of the operators. Every year, on the occasion of the budget, I visit the structures and meet the employees to thank them in person. Out of 4,000 workers, there was a significant turnover: 500 outputs and 500 new hires. A change not only generational that pushes us to invest not only in professional training, but also in the value one. Those who come to us, perhaps with the hope of a miracle, find above all someone willing to share the weight of fragility. This is our most important sign.
What do you mean by “performance”?
Taking charge, care path. An example above all: providing a performance to an autistic child does not only mean carrying out an outpatient activity of forty minutes of speech therapy, but approaching the family, the story of that child, his relationships, his interactions in the community. Talking about performance is sometimes a little reductive.
Next to the health dimension remains alive the Christian matrix …
The numbers must be read in the light of a wider vision, which focuses on the person and where efficiency is never separated from the cure. The budget thus becomes not only an instrument of transparency, but I am an alive story of a mission: to accompany each person on their way, especially in moments of fragility, with competence, dignity and proximity. Economic sustainability is not an end but a means of guaranteeing continuity, justice and future to our work. We want to be a living and merciful presence, capable of guarding the human even where it is more injured.
Don Gnocchi spoke of “intelligent charity”. What does this combination have today?
First of all, intelligent charity can face the problems of our time clearly. Don Carlo Gnocchi knew that on the one hand there are the people who need assistance, to which we must offer the best possible both from the point of view of therapeutic treatment and technology, on the other, being an educator himself, he knew that an important cultural work is needed both towards operators and of the country to remember that the first form of assistance and care is to win the drama that accompanies fragile people: solitude. Solidarity is the highest response to put in place towards fragility. Over the years there has been an increase of over 10 percent of volunteering and we have over 120 thousand hours donated by our volunteers.
Who are the volunteers?
Not only those of the historical associations connected to us – such as Avo and other realities engaged in the social – but also new forms of business volunteering, born from the dialogue with the production world. These are experiences with a high cultural value: we welcome employees of companies who choose to dedicate a day or a period to solidarity, and with them we promote training on the values of care, gift, attention to the most fragile. Another precious contribution comes from the young people of the civil service: last year alone, 64 boys have chosen to spend a year in our structures. They are not “young people for Don Gnocchi”, but it is Don Gnocchi for young people: we offer them a training and human path that has a strong vocational value. Meeting fragility, they can ask themselves about the meaning of life, about their future, about what really applies. A singular and courageous service has been added to these experiences: the welcome of people engaged in reparative justice paths. We hosted 37 boys, sent by the judges to carry out socially useful activities with us. Also for them, the Foundation becomes a place of encounter and change: getting in touch with fragility can become an opportunity to reflect and open glimpses of growth and responsibility.
Is volunteering a cultural service to the country?
Yes. It is a sign that the care of the other, if lived with truth, can generate profound change, even outside our structures.
How is the relationship between public health and third sector subjects such as the Don Gnocchi Foundation? Which challenges or opportunities glimpses?
The most urgent challenge is to make it clear that the right to health, sanctioned by the Constitution, cannot be guaranteed only by public health. We need an integrated vision, which also enhances the role of non -profit health and the private affiliated one. Healthcare is standing on three legs: public, non -profit and profit. Even the private social, such as our Foundation, guarantees access to care, often with rates well below the market, precisely to support the most fragile bands. Yet this subsidiary contribution is often ignored by those who govern, which tends to contrast public and private, forgetting that the real response to the needs passes from the collaboration.
