BDP sees a need for action and calls for improvements in psychosocial and psychotherapeutic care

09.11.2023 14:31

There are no valid numbers yet - but they could be in the hundreds of thousands: people who are sick with long-, post- and post-vaccine Covid. For those affected, this means a blatant turning point that tears them away from their previous life in the wake of health symptoms that can be described as a long-term, multi-organic disease process.

The result is often an inability to work and a significant reduction in quality of life and participation in social life. Children and young people as well as people from system-relevant professions in the health system, which is reaching its limits against this background, are also severely affected. What those affected often lack are contact points where they can find short-term and long-term help. 

In a resolution to the health ministries at federal and state level as well as social insurance providers and statutory health insurance associations, the professional association of German psychologists is calling for significantly better psychosocial and psychotherapeutic care to be striven for. The same applies to the necessary integration with the relevant medical departments in the outpatient and inpatient treatment of those affected as well as the expansion of a functioning self-help network. The necessary financial resources must urgently be made available here. 

The Federal Ministry of Health launched a Long Covid initiative in mid-July 2023, including a service number for those affected and an increase in research funding. The BDP expressly welcomes this initiative. At the same time, however, it is clear that a much greater effort is required from everyone involved in the system in order to help the large number of those affected effectively and in the long term.

In addition to improving diagnostics, the future focus will primarily be on support for professional reintegration. It would be particularly useful here to include psychological and psychotherapeutic expertise to support therapy. It can help those affected and their relatives and avoid exclusion and isolation in the long term. The resolution is an appeal not to lose sight of the large number of people affected. What is needed now are timely, sensible and low-threshold measures that take effect where they are needed and thus relieve the burden on the health system in the long term.