Spazio neutro: Origin and specific characteristics of a mediated contact centre

Towards the end of the 1980s, and within the framework of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations encouraged many countries to create mediated contact centres to ensure the continuity of parental bonds when minors are physically distant from one or both of their parents. In Italy, an agency entitled Spazio Neutro (Neutral Space) was set up as an entity both physically and psychologically dedicated to supporting, maintaining or rebuilding fragile parental bonds. The signal features of such an agency created in a town in central Italy are illustrated here, based on one of the author's clinical experience of such family follow-up.