Jens Spahn’s “grid therapy” does not help those affected

Affected fight back
“Raster therapy” according to scheme F: “I would have had the crisis if I had to get well within a fixed period of time”

Around 18 million adult people in Germany meet the criteria for mental illness every year. According to the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN), the most common include anxiety disorders, depression or psychological disorders due to the use of alcohol or medication. So how can you care for as many of them as possible when there are currently only around two million people in outpatient therapy? The Federal Ministry of Health has a new proposal for this: “Raster therapy”, which is particularly so called on social media.

“I would have had the crisis if I had been told: You have this fixed period of time and you have to get well, because after that you will be kicked out. That would have put me under total pressure,” says Sophia Sailer. The 25-year-old is one of those two million people. As a teenager, Sailer was in therapy for years because of depression, then was considered to have been completely exhausted. She is now back in therapy, with a corrected diagnosis: borderline personality disorder. Should grid therapy actually be implemented, it would be fatal for people like her.

Too few therapy places, not accessible enough and a social stigma

There are relatively high hurdles to starting psychotherapy in Germany. An important point is the insurance status, as statutory and private health insurances differ in terms of benefits. The next is probably one of the highest: to find a: n suitable: n therapist: in who also has the capacity to accept new people. Having to be content with a place on the waiting list at this point is not uncommon. When a therapy position has been found, between two and six trial sessions follow to find out whether the therapist: in and the patient: in are a match. Only then is the appropriate diagnosis made in several diagnostic sessions – this is where grid therapy comes in.

The template paper is available to several media and formulates an actually sensible approach: “The Federal Joint Committee will examine by December 31, 2022, taking into account the care according to Paragraph 6b, how the care of the mentally ill insured can be ensured in a needs-based and severity-oriented manner.” Nevertheless, this sentence made several bodies sit up and take notice, for example the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK). “According to our research, the beginning of psychotherapy should no longer be the individual diagnosis and coordination of the treatment with the patient, but rather rough criteria that determine according to scheme F whether and for how long a patient may be treated”, said BPtK President Dietrich Munz to the editorial network Germany.

A disaster for patients

If a: e patient is given the diagnosis of depression at the beginning, for example, which affects around 1.4 million people per year, there could be defined criteria for how this person is to be treated. Associations, therapists and, above all, those affected, criticize associations and therapists. Actress Nora Tschirner recently spoke very openly about her depression and the associated stigma, which made it even more difficult to even go into therapy. She ventures her horror on Instagram: Mental illnesses have “been researched a lot, but what it means for everyone is so individual that a fixed number of hours leads many people straight into the darkest valleys. Because with the pressure, this problem is now please sort it out in 20 hours, sometimes can’t even start walking. “

The 25-year-old Sophia Sailer has a similar view: “In order to be able to work on my symptoms really long term, I have to be stable. If I imagine that the therapist has pressure to end this therapy as early as possible, that would be for me have been fatal to me. ” Instead, a change in psychotherapists’ guidelines like this would bypass the needs of the mentally ill. The reform is not demand-oriented, but again an outgrowth of how to save the health system, says Sailer.

Sophia Sailer, 25, comes from Dortmund. She is a student, freelance journalist and posts as “die_millennial” on Instagram mainly about socio-political issues, but also about her psyche, in order to campaign for the destigmatization of mental illnesses. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder a year ago.

The Federal Ministry of Health does not understand the excitement

When asked by Stern, the Federal Ministry of Health replied that nothing had yet been decided, the committee would first examine the possibilities: “This test contract should be open-ended. This vote remains to be seen. However, the current excitement is out of proportion to the situation.” In addition, the idea behind it that more patients need to be cared for is not a bad idea. However, Sophia Sailer counters this: “Perhaps more people will then have therapy, but if they cannot finish it due to lack of time, it will not be of much use.”

So what is necessary instead of limiting the therapy time and replacing an individual therapy with a process according to scheme F? More points of contact and easier access, even for those with statutory health insurance. Last but not least – with 18 million people with a mental illness – mental illnesses must finally become more normal, demand those affected like actress Nora Tschirner or Sophia Sailer: “My God, it is really no longer a secret that mental illnesses exist and you can live with them should also act just as normally! But of course I also know that there is still no social consensus, even if I would like it to. “

swell: “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” / Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists / German Depression League / BAG Self-Help / Psychotherapy Search / German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology e. V. / Instagram: Nora Tschirner

This article originally appeared on stern.de.

mkb / star