The Committees on Constitutional Affairs and Budget approved the “psychological bonus”. The measure will now be included in the provision “Milleproroghe” that will be discussed in Parliament and will benefit from an allocation of 20 million: half of it will be dedicated to strengthening the public network of psychiatric care while the second half will be available to private citizens.
The Pd deputy Filippo Sensi, main supporter of this measure and first signatory of the amendment gave the news: “the committees on Constitutional Affairs and Budget approved the psychological bonus. Thanks to the government for the work done and to parliament groups for the support, to all those who believed in it. We go to the Parliament. A decisive step forward.”.
The focus is on mental well-being, a subject back in the limelight because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The psychological bonus will guarantee the access to the help of a professional in order to contrast “depression, anxiety, stress and psychological fragility” caused to the “pandemic emergency and the consequent social and economic crisis”. All the citizens will have the possibility to access to it, without discrimination by age, especially children an teenagers, upon a prescription that diagnoses a discomfort. A decree of the ministries of Health and Economy will rule the modalities of submission of the application to get access to the bonus and its extent.
Except for changes during the parliamentary discussion, in 2022 the bonus will consist of the emanation of 600 euros, until exhaustion of the resources, to whoever has a psychological discomfort, without discrimination by age and with an ISEE under 50,000 euros, with the idea of supporting people in financial difficulty and with low income. It is estimated that it will be possible to guarantee the support for at least 17,000 people.
The measure arrives after pressing weeks from the civil society, with an online petition, and also from different political forces and 21 scientific societies that, in a document addressed to the attention of the Government, Parliament and local entities, asked for the creation of the bonus.
Furthermore, in the absence of a clear intervention by Palazzo Chigi, Lazio Region had already decided to anticipate the measure autonomously, opting for an allocation of 10,9 million until 2025 for the strengthening of the local network of psychological assistance. This example has been followed by Lombardia, Emilia Romagna e Campania regions, that in turn announced the willingness to adopt similar measures.
The minister of Health Roberto Speranza declared: “with the psychological bonus we do not solve everything, we have to strengthen the public sanitary service in the field of mental health. We need more resources for the local and psychological assistance with systemic action. The bonus is the first sign and I keep my commitment”.
