There will be up to 600 euros available to spend in 2022 to go to the psychologist to treat the mental distress caused by two years of pandemic punctuated by lockdown, distance learning or smart working. Italians will be able to access this psychological bonus, regardless of age, after medical prescription and diagnosis of the discomfort and which will be recognized by Isee bands (the indicator of the economic situation). With the maximum Isee ceiling that will be high up to at least 50 thousand euros. Here it is the psychological bonus evoked for weeks and ready to enter with an amendment in the thousandproproghe bill being examined by the Chamber.
The measures in the milleproroghe
The Ministry of Health at the instigation of the minister Roberto Speranza who announced the bonus in recent days speaking of “first sign” is filing it together with the Ministry of Economy: the initial dowry should be 20 million, but it could go up. Of these, half will go to the strengthening of the structures of the health service to favor in particular access to psychology and psychotherapy services, also through the implementation of experimental projects that involve collaboration between psychologists and general practitioners. The other half of the dowry will be used precisely to give off this psychological bonus, a sort of voucher that Italians can “spend” to obtain assistance. The measures are included in the thousand-extension bill that will be in the Chamber this Friday.
How the bonus will work
As mentioned, this “psychological bonus” will materialize as an economic contribution that can reach a maximum of 600 euros. The amount of the bonus will in fact be modulated according to the ISEE bands and can be used to support the costs of psychotherapy sessions that can be used by psychotherapists registered on the register subject to medical prescription and diagnosis made by the health professional within the Health Service. The family doctor should also be included among these. The bar to access the psychological bonus should still be high, in fact, it is being evaluated to reach up to 50 thousand euros of Isee in order to obtain the bonus which, however, as mentioned, will have a different value based on the indicator of the economic situation.
Millions of Italians affected
Of course, on balance, the first dowry of the psychological bonus is really minimal if we consider the fact that today there are millions of Italians who have suffered or suffer hardships after two hard years of health emergency. A widespread need that requires a psychological response in terms of listening and support. «The average obtained from 66 researches carried out internationally indicates that, in the Covid era, 31% of the population over the age of 18 has a situation of significant psychological stress that I call psychological fatigue. Under the age of 18 this percentage rises to 50%. We really talk about many Italians “, underlines among others the president of the National Council of the Order of Psychologists (Cnop), David Lazzari. Which underlines how the psychological bonus is «a first step, a minimum sum. It will then be necessary to start a process to give structural answers ».