The psychologist bonus is back, but those who really need it are being left behind. Mental health care therefore remains a luxury – The survey

After more than a year of waiting, the “psychologist bonus” resumes. From March 18 to the end of May, applications can be submitted to obtain the contribution. An amendment to the Milleproroghe decree-law increased the resources: from 8 to 10 million for 2024, which thus become equal to those available for 2023. The incentive, a unique, is accessible to those who have an ISEE income not exceeding 50,000 euros and who reside in Italy. But it is also (and above all) up to those who ask for it before others. In fact, the risk is that the funds will be exhausted in no time. As happened last year, when around 40,000 applications were accepted out of a total of almost 400,000. Indeed, demand is increasing and supply – particularly public – is suffering. A situation that not only compromises the well-being and rights of psychologists, but activates a vicious circle with negative consequences also for those who seek psychological assistance – online or in person – in the public sector. Above all, the lack of investment takes a toll, creating a socio-economic gap in access to support services: those who can afford to pay for private counseling have a wide range of options, while those who cannot are in the situation of having to depend on public services risk finding themselves without adequate support to deal with what experts are calling the “new pandemic”.

In the public “a psychological journey is impossible”

In the public service, “a psychological journey is almost impossible today”, explains a Open Felice Torricelli, president of the National Institute of Social Security and Assistance to Psychologists (Enpap). Those who pay the most are “young people, students, the unemployed and women”: subjects fragile which on the one hand “increased their psychological suffering – explains the expert -, on the other hand they noted a total absence of public services capable of taking care of their difficulties”. In the pre-pandemic period, to cite some data, 10 million Italians faced anxiety and real depression. After Covid-19, the reasons for stress, tension and fear have not diminished at all. “So many uncertainties, fears, the perception of a lack of control over everything around us, a generalized feeling of powerlessness, incapacity, inadequacy. And above all – underlines Torricelli – a great solitude into which we have all fallen.”

The “useless and underfunded” psychologist bonus

The State, with the bonus psychologist, tried to deal with this situation of uncertainty. However, this measure – although it has provided a sort of “temporary relief” – is insufficient and inappropriate. “It only helps those who chose and were able to afford to undergo psychotherapy or seek psychological counseling,” specifies Torricelli, who underlines, among other things, how it is “very difficult for a person who has not the means to undergo an intervention to enter psychological therapy. advice pending then the INPS reimburses the session. It is not a tool – he asserts – that allows access to psychology services to those who need them most. If we considered these measures, aimed at the mental health of citizens, also in terms of “investment with immediately monetizable economic benefits”, the perspective would immediately change. “These disorders, anxiety and depression, have the effect of affecting people on whom the country relies to function,” specifies the expert.

Creativity and productivity: victims of lack of funding in psychology

In other words: they affect the majority of citizens in the active phase of their professional life or during their studies, significantly affecting their functioning. “We know today that around 50% of absenteeism is linked to anxiety and depression – he specifies -. And absenteeism significantly reduces productivity. But also what the English call presenteeism, that is to say the condition in which people go to work, are present in the company, but work, produce, work and study much less. “Anxiety and depression, even at very low levels, “thus eat away what is the main economic resource of our country, namely creativity: the ability of people to find solutions to problems”. And this is the State, with its policies, which must encourage services aimed at achieving an acceptable quality of life. “If there are no credits in this sector, everything remains at a standstill,” declares the head of Enpap. “If the priorities policies do not change, and if you look at it closely, it is not a question of right and left – he specifies – orient yourself This has been going on for twenty years, governments of all colors succeed one another. But there is never money to carry out interventions in this area. But spending on psychology means investing not only in well-being, but also in a better-functioning economy, it means investing in the productivity of the country. »

The other side of the coin: underpaid psychologists

The pandemic and the resulting explosion of online therapies have caused people to reevaluate their priorities. Taking care of yourself, of your mental health, has become – in a way – a need, but also an essential right, if you wish. “What is changing is that citizens and citizens are now more and more aware of it, but the institutions a little less,” says Torricelli. But very often, this awareness comes up against real transformation on a practical level: both due to lack of personal resources and public underfunding. But not only that: the other side of the coin concerns those who must provide these mental health services, namely psychologists and psychotherapists. A category that has continued for years to fight against insufficient wages and precariousness, despite the increase in income at the national level. “The problem is that there are very few psychologists in the public. There are areas in which – continues the operator – psychologists are underpaid by the State, although in the health field it is generally possible to have decent salaries”. But since the year last, there is “legislation on fair remuneration for all workers – he continues -. We are waiting for the implementing decrees because there must be a ministerial decree which must define the amounts.”

The short circuit between supply and demand

This economic uncertainty inevitably leads operators to seek solutions for their livelihood: “Among psychologists, there is a very high proportion of people who have other jobs and dedicate themselves to part time independent work”, he explains. And it is the feminine gender (psychologists represent around 85% of the total), the gender which resorts to this “divide” “with an inequality of income between men and women which, before the pandemic, was 40% in favor of men – she recalls the expert -, but which, with the general increase in the turnover of post-pandemic income, saw the gap narrow” . And people who work part-time tend to invest less in “supplying” customers, which is fundamental – he explains – and which, if you like, is the operation that the place the platforms. The latter make clients available to their colleagues and are paid for this.” The mechanism is clear: if psychologists and psychotherapists “do not invest in advertising and online presence, they will have less and less clients at conferences and in appropriate spaces and in Italy there is no structure that does this work, intercepting supply and demand. And the search for well-being, which can arise from the management of complexity , sudden changes, of emerging from the abyss into which we have fallen, will become more and more a priority and will increasingly require psychological help. The data is clear: one in ten Italians would like to consult a psychologist, but is obliged to give it up for economic reasons (survey carried out by the Piepoli Institute for the National Council of the Order of Psychologists). But if this saying is true no one runs awayit is also true that people have the right to equitable resources, tools, and opportunities to save themselves.

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