Vittorio Melega, Danilo Di Diodoro, Angelo Fioritti
Department of Mental Health, S. Stefano-Savena Health District, Bologna, Italy.

Internet can be used as a communication tool between Health Services and people.
Information upon disorders and prophylaxis, upon services schedules and functioning, can be easily put in web pages or in e-mails.

Our Department of Mental Health has created its own web page (in the electronic journal Psychiatry on line), where it is possible to find information about schizophrenia, for patients and their relatives. This page has been linked with the local pages, the Iperbole project.

We think that these kind of experiences have to be considered an extension of the psychoeducational approach. Giving information upon the disease is a way to modify and improve relationships between services and families, reducing disconfort and dysfunction of patients and relatives, and increasing their collaboration with the therapeutic process.