With My psychic supportwhich is celebrating its three years these days, France has ended an anomaly: the total absence of reimbursement of psychologists’ consultations. But for the moment, only “light to moderate” disorders (fleeting anxiety, depressive symptoms, sleep problems) are supported. The recommended psychotherapy in the event of proven psychiatric pathology, they still do not benefit from funding from the community when they take place with a liberal professional. An astonishing choice, including with regard to those made by many other European countries, which mostly reimburse this care.
It is not, far from it, the only difference between France and its neighbors. Status, duration of studies, autonomy compared to doctors, direct access or on prescription: on many other points, our country is distinguished. In most of our neighbors, the use of psychological or psychotherapeutic support seems much more supervised than in France, a corollary of an often extended reimbursement compared to my psychic support.
From Belgium to the Netherlands via Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom or Germany, all countries cover psychological care for light to moderate disorders. The Belgian authorities reimburse for example up to 20 individual consultations (12 in France) and an unlimited number of group sessions, with a minimum dependent rest for patients (from 2.50 euros to 11 euros). In England, 20 sessions are also reimbursed per year, while in Germany, their number is not limited.
Be or not be a health profession …
In France, clinical psychologists (which take care of mental disorders, unlike labor or development psychologists for example) do not fall under the public health code, and most representative organizations are strongly opposed to their integration into health professions. This particularly epidermal question in us, does not seem to be asking in the vast majority of other countries on the old continent: almost everywhere, clinical psychology is an integral part of the care system.
Similarly, access to psychologists is only possible on medical prescription. Only England authorizes free access, to “lift the brake that seemed to constitute the obligation to go through a general practitioner for part of the population”, noted the general inspection of social affairs in a report published in 2019. In France, psychologists make free direct access a casus belli. Thus, initially, French patients must imperatively obtain a prescription from a doctor to benefit from the reimbursement provided for within the framework of the my Psychic support system. But the representatives of the profession very opposed this measure, and Gabriel Attal, when he was Prime Minister, ended up proving them reason and returning to this obligation.
The training of clinical psychologists is also the subject of intense reflections. In France, the course is built with a license in three years and a master more specialized in two years (psychopathology, development psychology, neuropsychology, etc.). Students must in parallel carry out a 500 -hour internship, just over three months, before obtaining their diploma. Subsequently, they can continue their training by passing academic diplomas (from) optional, on the basis of volunteering. Abroad, countries offer longer training to be able to exercise with patients with psychological or psychiatric disorders.
Abroad, longer clinical psychologist training
In the Netherlands, the initial training takes place in three years of license plus a year of Master, with 560 hours of internship. But then, future “health psychologists” must undertake the second stage of their curriculum, with specialized training of 2 years, combining studies and practical internships. They can then follow a suctionalization in clinical psychology or neuropsychology. In Germany, a master’s degree in psychology is not enough to be able to practice psychotherapy, and compulsory additional training is particularly provided, with 600 hours of theoretical teaching, 1,200 hours of practice in a psychiatric institution and 600 hours equivalent to a supervised boarding school, remunerated around 1,000 euros per month, according to A report by the Psy Manifestoan association bringing together psychologists opposed to my psychiatrist.
In Belgium, finally, training is done in five years as in France but it is completed with a minimum year of “supervised practice” for future clinical psychologists. To exercise, they must register with the “Commission of Psychologists”, an independent public body which issues an approval number and “monitors to title and ethics”, according to its statutes. An alternative to the creation of an order, whose representatives of French psychologists do not want to hear about it either?
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