May psychotherapists soon only treat selected patients?

A new lower instance should clarify the need for therapy

Anyone who ever wanted to do psychotherapy quickly realized that getting a place with a therapist is anything but easy. The waiting lists are long and the seats limited. However, new places can often not be created because the number of admissions for psychotherapists is limited. Health Minister Jens Spahn wants to change this situation - but not as many have imagined. Instead of creating more seats, he wants to lower the number of therapy seekers by a lower court.

Minister of Health Spahn presented on 26 September a bill to ensure better care for the mentally ill. The so-called appointment service and care law (TSVG) is to introduce a graded control of mentally ill people seeking help. In a preliminary medical examination then a qualified doctor should decide whether the patient actually requires psychotherapy. For the mentally ill, however, this represents another hurdle on the way to therapy, criticize the opponents of the draft.

A new care law is to introduce a lower court for psychotherapy, which should judge how a person in need of therapy is. (Image: Chinnapong / fotolia.com)

The good ones get into the pots ... and the bad ones?

The Federal Association of Contract Psychotherapists, the German Psychotherapists Association and the Association of Analytical Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists reacted with strong criticism and are currently trying to obtain a petition against the TSVG. "Such a selection, before a treatment can be claimed, free the access to the medical or psychological psychotherapist", emphasize the associations in the petition text.

A new hurdle race for the mentally ill?

This legislative proposal discriminates against a whole group of patients, according to the merger. Mentally ill people would already have to deal with high mental and shame-burdened stress anyway. According to the new law, these would have to be discussed with another, not self-selected doctor. "The mentally ill are expected to hurdles that unnecessarily burden them and penalize them to other groups of patients," write the authors of the petition.

Specialists feel discriminated against

As the petition shows, the psychiatrists and psychotherapists also feel that way. Because the bill indirectly implies that they are not in a position to make such assessments themselves. "Psychotherapeutic doctors and psychological psychotherapists have due to their expertise and approval of all qualifications for diagnosis, indication and treatment planning," write the petition authors.

Care studies confirm the success of therapy

The associations refer to several independent care studies, which prove that psychotherapies in Germany achieve good success with high patient satisfaction. "The intended new regulation can only be understood as the unjustified attempt of rationing treatment services," the association concludes.

Minister of Health defends his plans

On Wednesday, December 12, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn defended his plans for the reorganization of psychotherapy against the public broadcaster ARD. "Today it is still so, despite all the measures taken in recent years, that patients with depression, who desperately need treatment, often do not get it and wait a long time," Spahn told the station. For this reason, he wanted to steer and coordinate through the law, so that really sick people would get a treatment. An interim opinion on the urgency assessment, he considered a suitable instrument.

Spahn: More therapists can not solve the problem

In the opinion of the Minister of Health, the use of more psychotherapists can not solve the problem. As his team found out about the appointment service, the longest waiting periods for treatment were in the areas where most psychotherapists exist. "It shows that something in the controller is not working as it should," says Spahn. He emphasized that he himself had experienced a case of mental illness in the family and that the fast and good care of the mentally ill was particularly important to him. (Vb)