Expert advises mentally ill beer instead of therapy?

Health functionary discredits work of psychotherapists?

06/11/2013

Sometimes a beer is enough instead of a visit to the therapist. This was announced by none other than Josef Hecken, the man whom many consider the most powerful in health care, such as „Mirror online“ reported. The Chairman of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), which negotiates therapy and medication for the insured, now has to face the sharp criticism of psychologists and doctors due to his statements. In view of increasing mental suffering with simultaneous lack of therapy places, Hecken seems to misjudge the seriousness of the situation.

Heckens statement is a slap in the face for the mentally ill
More and more people in Germany suffer from mental health problems. Too much workload, little free time and the permanent multimedia accessibility take their toll: burnout syndrome and depression are increasingly affecting young people. These are by no means trifles, which could be remedied by a two-week holiday, a short break. Mental illnesses require professional treatment as well as physical complaints. In this respect, the statement Heckens not only factually wrong, but also a slap in the face of those affected and a discrediting of psychotherapists.

To the statement - not every citizen needs a therapist, a bottle of beer does it sometimes - it was loud „Mirror online“ in a meeting of the top association of the statutory health insurance companies. The sentence emerges from an unofficial protocol of the public session that exists in the online magazine. Hedges itself should not deny the utterances. Rather, they are in his opinion „unhappy, because misleading. "As Chairman of the G-BA, together with the representatives of health insurances, hospitals and doctors, he is instrumental in the negotiations in which the psychotherapeutic procedures taken over by the health insurance funds are decided.

Hedges bothers with demands for more cash seats for psychotherapists
As the online magazine continues to report hedges have disturbed especially the demands for more cash seats for psychotherapists, which are limited. Patients often have to wait for several months to get a therapy place.

In this context it should have come to the statement, which meets with sharp criticism, especially at the psychological psychotherapists. „Mirror online“ quoted from a protest letter circulating in professional circles. „They trivialize and ignore the needs of our patients with their beer bottle metaphor and subtly stigmatize people with severe mental disorders, "it says.

Hedges is said to have stated on request that he had just wanted to communicate that he „as a private individual does not look at any discomfort such as occasional sleep problems as a morbid and immediately in need of treatment, but then sometimes helps me as an old and traditional home remedy a bottle of warmed beer. "Next quotes him the magazine: „It was and is far from me to play down mental illnesses or even to call alcohol consumption a suitable alternative to psychotherapeutic treatment. "He already has his opinion of the chairman of the Federal Psychotherapeutic Chamber „Expressed regret over the imprecise statement ".

Hedges should be impartial chairman
Dieter Best, Federal Chairman of the German Association of Psychotherapists, finds it particularly worrying that Hecken has indirectly stated in one of the most important bodies of the statutory health insurance funds that he considers the unhindered access of insured persons to psychotherapy as guaranteed by social legislation to be of concern. „He is the impartial chairman of the G-BA and committed to neutrality, "Best said to the online magazine. „And that is not neutral. "

„Mirror online“ According to the unofficial protocol, according to Heckens, cash-strapped seats that can not be staffed by doctors should not, as planned, go to psychological psychotherapists from 2014 onwards. (Ag)

Image: Michaela Schöllhorn