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The psychologist bonus, in 2022 alone, would have saved the public system 312 million euros in terms of days of absence from work due to illness avoided, and this compared to a public investment for the measure amounting to 25 million euros. The estimate emerges from the study carried out by Cnop, the National Council of the Order of Psychologists, in collaboration with the Universities of Milan Bicocca, Bergamo, Catania, Palermo, Pavia and La Sapienza of Rome. A study which reports how the economic benefit recognized for sessions by the psychologist starting from 2022 to those who applied for it to the INPS and took advantage of it based on the ISEE requirements has seen the symptoms of their malaise decrease, productivity increase working as well as reducing access to the GP and the use of drugs.
The benefit exceeds the cost of the benefit
The bonus, explains Angelo Compare, full professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bergamo, who participated in the PsyCARE study on the impact and cost-effectiveness of the psychological bonus, presented by (CNOP) in a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies, is «first and foremost an investment». And the data relating to 2022 proves it: «The investment on the bonus was 25 million in 2022 – explains the expert -. Those who benefited from the psychologist bonus and who were workers were 21,360. Considering that the average request for sick days per month due to mental illness is approximately 5 days, for an amount equal to 1220 euros, and by multiplying this figure by 12 months, we can highlight how the return on investment was 312 million euros in terms of reduction in days of absence from work thanks to the bonus effect. Therefore, in terms of cost and benefits, we must compare 25 million costs for the public coffers against a return of 312 million in direct costs alone.” Added to this, he continues, are the “indirect costs, i.e. the productivity which we have seen have had a return and an increase of 14% but which we have not quantified economically”. The survey highlights that the psychological bonus opened the doors to therapy especially for people who had never used it: 72% were not being treated at the time of the request and, among the new patients, four out of five (81%) were not had ever gone to a therapist mainly for financial reasons.
The psychologist bonus is back, the questions from March 18th
Access to the bonus, reasons and effects
Of the sample of over two thousand patient-therapist couples who joined the Psycare project, 43% responded that they found out about the psychologist bonus through television or social media. Among the main reasons for requesting help are psychological symptoms (58.3%) and family relationships (39.4%). The intervention works on reducing symptoms: -45% for those of anxiety at the end of treatment and -38% at follow-up; -24% at the end of treatment and -20% at follow-up for depression. The data relating to the impact of the interventions on patient productivity is significant. In fact, among those who benefited from the bonus, there was a significant decrease in the number of days of work lost due to problems related to mental health: five days in a month, which according to Eurostat data on labor costs is equivalent to around 1,200 euros saved per month. month per person. Numbers which, if compared to people with similar problems in the entire Italian population, would lead to an economic impact equal to over 1% of the country’s GDP. Furthermore, the decrease in the number of visits to the general practitioner and in the consumption of painkillers is significant.
We need more resources and also more access points
Among the requests to improve the measure, there is that of greater allocations to increase the sessions and a simplification of the membership process given that only 14% of applicants were able to access the measure. For the president of Cnop, David Lazzari «the opinion of those who have benefited from the bonus is also important: 53% feel strongly improved and 36% improved, we are talking about 9 out of 10 people. But the bonus is a piece of a network , which must include – he concludes – school psychology and the basic psychologist, like three vertices of a triangle”. According to data from the Ministry of Health, of the 547,477 Italians who turned to the emergency room to receive help due to mental health problems in 2022, 72.3% were sent home, only 13.8% were admitted to hospital. . «And this is because the PS is not the correct access point. Now the time has come for new access points to open up: the primary care psychologist, the ‘psychologist bonus’ are all excellent alternatives to alleviate this type of situation that is created in hospitals”, confirmed Laura Parolin, CNOP vice-president and professor of the University of Milan-Bicocca. According to Senator Filippo Sensi (Pd), one of the “fathers” of the psychologist bonus, «the positive results of the first experiment say that the direction was right, that the need and request was and remains very broad, not only because it arrived after the Covid, but because there is an important mental health issue in the country. The fact that it is underfunded today obviously remains a big problem, we need mental health policies that involve all parties, that involve all forces, it is not a question of one party rather than another: we need basic psychologists, we need more resources on the bonus.”