More than PLN 4 billion for psychiatry. Ministry of Health announces record support

- We are investing unprecedented, record funding to improve mental health care. This is as much as PLN 4.2 billion. This money comes from the European Union - PLN 1.2 billion. PLN 3 billion are budget funds from the Medical Fund," said Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna at a press conference on Thursday.

The purpose of transferring money for investment in psychiatry is to improve infrastructure. New buildings are to be constructed, adapted to the needs of diagnosis and treatment. The rooms will house fewer beds than before and will be equipped with sanitary hubs and modern equipment.

The beneficiaries of the support are to be primarily provincial and district hospitals, as well as institutes, foundations, associations, public and non-public clinics, health care facilities and medical centers. To ensure an even distribution of funds, the Health Ministry has adopted a model in which the PLN 3 billion in budget support will be divided into two pools: PLN 1.7 billion for projects worth between PLN 2 and 50 million, and PLN 1.3 billion, for larger projects worth between PLN 50 and 200 million.

- It is known that larger centers have a greater potential to apply and obtain funding in competitions. We want to ensure that the support will be equally distributed and each center, both smaller and larger, will have an equal chance to apply and reach for the money," explained Deputy Health Minister Katarzyna Kacperczyk.

- We're also talking about patient-friendly zones where patients will be able to meet with their families. The real impact of what we want to do is, of course, to increase access to mental health services. We're talking about comprehensive care, quality and safety of services, as well as, and perhaps most importantly, reducing waiting times for appointments or hospitalization.

- This is a record amount that will support us greatly. The needs are growing. Over the past few years, the number of children and adolescents requiring specialized help and support has more than doubled. Despite thriving community care, we still have a lot of teens in crisis," said Dr. Aleksandra Lewandowska, national consultant for child psychiatry.

- The adult psychiatry system is changing from 2018. Polish experts, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, have developed a model of community care - the Mental Health Center. There is coordinated care and accessibility to the entire range of services. More and more medical school graduates want to do specialization in psychiatry. The only thing we lacked was infrastructure. These were often places that were more than 100 years old, and it was hard to do treatment in them in a modern way. There had never been money to invest in infrastructure for psychiatry," stressed Professor Piotr Galecki, national consultant for psychiatry.