While the number of reimbursed sessions at the psychologist has quadrupled since March 2020, the long waiting lists still mean that not everyone can go to the psychologist for €11 under the new regulation.
Since the authorities announced that people would be able to be reimbursed for up to 20 individual sessions per year with a psychologist from September 2021, new figures from the cabinet of Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, seen by De Morgen, show that progress has been made in recent months, but that we are far from there.
Between March 2020 and January 2022, the number of sessions with a psychologist quadrupled, from 5,565 sessions to 22,373 sessions. The supply of psychological care has also increased by 40% in the meantime.
Additionally, all 32 mental health networks have signed up to the new scheme and 1,083 psychologists and remedial educationalists had registered to work under the new system by early February.
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That does not, however, change the fact that waiting lists in the mental health sector currently take months. According to Vandenbroucke, the change is happening so slowly because "this is a fundamental culture shift," he said, arguing in favour of aid attuned to the needs of the population.
However, the mental health networks are still developing and the Flemish primary care zones are hopelessly overburdened by the coronavirus crisis, they said.
"Politicians demands that we prioritise groups that are vulnerable to developing mental health problems because of the pandemic, such as people who lost someone to Covid or the self-employed who are at risk of being unable to work," Koen Lowet of the Flemish Association of Clinical Psychologists told the newspaper.
"The networks have to do that based on analysis, but are given far too little guidance in doing so. So you risk getting a different offer from each network," he said. "You can only hope that these differences are based on a good analysis, and not because someone in the network can shout the loudest."
Vandenbroucke expects the new system of reimbursed psychological care to reach cruising speed by summer. "The budget allows for 1,500 full-time psychologists. But after evaluation, that number can grow in time," he said.
