- We need to improve the infrastructure, because unfortunately, psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric care centers have often been overlooked. We are filling this gap. Today we are settling a competition for nearly PLN 80 million. - said Health Minister Adam Niedzielski during a press conference held in front of the children's ward of the Prof. Mieczyslaw Kaczynski Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Lublin.
Adam Niedzielski: PLN 80 million for investment in infrastructure for psychiatry
Published July 24, 2023 11:11
fot. MZ
The program in question is the Support Program for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Wards, under which facilities can apply for funding to improve infrastructure and purchase necessary equipment, among other things.
Adam Niedzielski reported that work is underway to prepare calls for projects for refinancing in the FEnIKS Program, implemented with European Funds. There is also an amendment currently in parliament that will allow the Medical Fund to be used to finance psychiatry.
As recalled by the Health Minister, the new mental health care model for children and adolescents was introduced in 2019. The basic premise of the reform is deinstitutionalization, i.e. easier access to help outside the hospital and earlier care for those in need.
The psychiatry reform has already succeeded in launching 403 community psychological and psychotherapeutic services for children and adolescents, 136 Mental Health Centers for children and adolescents, and 32 24-hour care facilities.
- We had planned to reach this number (of community care facilities - ed. note) only in 2030, so we were able to organize a dense network of Level I assistance much earlier," Adam Niedzielski stressed.
Meanwhile, funding for psychiatric care and addiction treatment has increased two and a half times since 2015: from 2.3 to 5.6 billion zlotys.
- Specific money is going into psychiatry reform. For child and adolescent psychiatry, we have a fourfold increase in spending from 2019. And spending on psychiatry combined - for adults, children and adolescents - has more than doubled, the Health Minister reminded.
