Yasmina Kattou, edited by Nathanaël Bentura
It is this Tuesday that the “MonPsy” device is launched. It allows the total reimbursement of eight sessions per year with independent partner psychologists, for children from the age of three and adults. However, it has not met with the hoped-for success with professionals because it only concerns certain specific disorders.
Around 1,000 volunteer psychologists are listed on the “monpsy.santé.gouv.fr” website. They will be the first practitioners to offer the “MonPsy” device, launched on Tuesday. It allows the total reimbursement of eight sessions per year with independent partner psychologists, for children from the age of three and adults. While 12 million French people suffer from mental disorders, the device only concerns certain specific disorders. A detail that disappoints professionals.
What disorders are affected?
The “MonPsy” device is intended only for French people who suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders, mild to moderate, specifies the government. Consultations for burnout or suicidal thoughts are de facto excluded. An aberration according to Camille Mohoric Faedi, co-founder of the collective “Manifeste psy” which brings together more than 7,000 psychotherapists: “Slight to moderate disorders do not exist. Sometimes we consult for a little anxiety or a little depression, as the patient will call it, and in fact, you realize that there is something else behind it.”
To be reimbursed, the sessions must be prescribed by a general practitioner. One more step to take for patients, regrets the psychologist. According to Camille Mohoric-Faedi, “going through a general practitioner dissuades the patient from going to consult a psychologist. He must be able to have free and direct access to the psychologist of his choice. Especially at the present time we are seeing great difficulties to have an appointment with a general practitioner”.
The device allows the reimbursement of eight sessions per year. Largely insufficient to establish a follow-up according to Camille Mohoric-Faedi. To continue the therapy, patients will have to pay out of pocket an average of 60 euros per session.