Half of the country is covered by mental health centers, and half - residents have no access to such organized care. The pilot is coming to an end, and there is no systemic change on the horizon. Marek Balicki, former Minister of Health and former Minister's Plenipotentiary for Psychiatry Reform, also draws attention to the issue of funding, or rather - its scarcity.
What's next for mental health centers?
Published May 29, 2024 07:50
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- Important is the level of funding for psychiatry itself, which in Poland does not exceed 5 percent of the budget of the National Health Fund, which is tantamount to discrimination against this area. In Europe, the absolute minimum is 6-7 percent, and in Germany, for example, it is 10 percent. With the funding we have in our country, we can forget about quality assurance," Marek Balicki said during a Tuesday conference organized on the occasion of the "State of Psychiatry in Poland" congress, which will be held in June.
Marek Balicki pointed out what has been achieved with the mental health centers. The goal of the changes was, and is, to implement solutions to enable people in mental health crisis to obtain rapid community-based assistance. - The CZP pilot started in 2018. Important organizational and financial changes were made, including funding for holistic care. This made perfect sense, because in the case of long-term care, how can you pay for points and not for providing adequate support and assistance to a person with mental health problems? - he assessed, adding that another key change concerns "entry" into the system. - In the old model, a person who wants to get help goes to a counseling center, but instead of seeing a psychologist, he or she meets with a registrar, from whom he or she hears that a consultation is possible in a few months or even a year. In the case of CZP, one can come directly from the street to the application and coordination points, when a person needs it," he explained.
Dr. Michal Lew-Starowicz, a psychiatrist and sexologist, stressed that the reform allows for the construction of "basic psychiatric care" - in addition to enrollment and coordination points, it also includes mental health clinics, or community treatment teams. - We are now at a symbolic moment: we know that mental health centers are already operating in half the country. Now the situation should prevail in the direction of the development of community psychiatry, because if half the country is implementing these, what happens in the other half? - he asked rhetorically.
Prof. Jacek Wciórka of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw noted that for residents of many counties, mental health assistance is practically non-existent, as the availability of a specialist within a few months (or even more) is no solution.
In addition to the issue of funding, Marek Balicki noted the need to ensure a smooth transition from the pilot phase to systemic solutions. - The change needs to be given a legal and organizational framework so as to be able to achieve its goals, he explained, adding that the process of reforming psychiatry is not over and must have its own "host" - an institution that will ensure monitoring and evaluation, but which will also guard quality.
