“COVID has increased mental distress and the National Health Service must take charge of it. Now more than ever the presence of psychologists in clinics and hospital wards is essential to guarantee the well-being of the population”. This is the appeal that David Lazzari, president of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists today presents Roberto Speranza to the Minister of Health. After the controversy of recent days with Prime Minister Mario Draghi who had defined “absurd to vaccinate a 35-year-old psychologist” before the elderly, Lazzari returns to the field to recall the importance of the category in health care.
Professor Lazzari, what do you ask Minister Speranza?
“Our requests to the minister will in no way be influenced by the controversy with Prime Minister Draghi. We represent 24 scientific societies and we ask Speranza to respond to the request of citizens’ needs for a greater presence of psychology within the National Health Service. new healthcare needs the combination of technology-biomedicine and humanity-psychology. The NHS must heal people and not just their bodies. To do this, psychology must be put in place and law 833 of ’78 applied which, based on our Constitution, which spoke of equity and globality in matters of health. Globality includes treatments that also guarantee the psychological well-being of the individual “.
Are you asking for a greater presence in mental health services?
“In the most serious situations we work alongside psychiatrists to treat people. Child neuropsychiatry and mental health services need to be strengthened. Today in Italy psychologists are only 6.5% of health professionals, well below the European average which is more than double “.
But today you are also important to prevent more serious situations. Eating disorders and addictions have increased among children, but it often takes three months to get a place in a public clinic, too long when even one day can make a difference.
“Often a child, but also a teenager or an adult is not well, but the situation is not yet extreme. With Covid and the epidemic there are numerous cases. The unease is widespread, there is a need for support immediately, it does not arrive. and situations worsen. The wards were filled with teenagers who had attempted suicide, acts of self-harm or cases of severe anorexia. We only intervene in extreme cases. Medicines are used, when it was possible to prevent the aggravation of the situation . Yet psychological support has been included in the Lea and should be guaranteed to citizens. And people who cannot pay for treatment in private are harmed “.
It would be important to expand the presence of psychologists in the school, which is often a useful observatory of juvenile distress.
“Yes, here too the presence of psychologists is important to support the children. The professors should also be supported and trained. They too are very tried by the epidemic and greater awareness would also help them in understanding the discomfort of the students”.
The support of your experts is also important among cancer patients.
“There is a large literature that shows that psychologists’ therapy lowers stress and extends the life of patients with cancer. It is scientific evidence and it is not an ethical issue. The national plan provides for the presence of psychologists. , but it is not implemented. The numbers are low compared to the other G7 states that have a similar income to ours. In Italy there is one psychologist for every 12,000 inhabitants, while in the other G7 countries one every 2,500 “.
Among other things, we could also save money by preventing disease.
“The NHS would save a lot, all the research on the subject tells us that prevention is better than cure disease. In 2008, after the global economic crisis, mental distress increased a lot and a study of London School of Economics once again demonstrated the importance of prevention in cutting health care costs. For this reason, the British government launched the Iapt program to hire a large number of psychologists. A way that among other things also cuts the cost of drugs “.
If you work less on prevention, the use of psychotropic drugs also increases.
“Yes and we have seen that the use of psychotropic drugs is also increasing even among the very young. Maybe they find them at home and end up abusing them, it is a trend that is coming to us and that has already spread for some time in the United States. problem pushed also by Big Pharma. Psychology is not promoted because we are cheap “.
Among other things, during the epidemic there was also the problem of psychological support for health workers..
“This shows once again how neglected psychology is in the NHS: one third of health workers have had symptoms of stress or post traumatic stress disorder with the pandemic. ‘Inail to support health professionals but it was largely unimplemented because there were not enough psychologists. “
Why is psychology so undervalued?
“We have never been able to make a social use of psychology. It is as if it were an opinion and not an applied science, instead it has a fundamental role for the well-being of the individual and the community. It should be taught in schools”.
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