On October 10, coinciding with World Mental Health Day, the Soleterre Foundation launched its new campaign "One Psychologist for Every Department" during an event featuring various experts, including doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists, and psycho-oncologists. The campaign aims to establish the right to free psychological care for children and adolescents by ensuring the presence of at least one specialized psychologist in pediatric oncology departments.
Soleterre also advocates for psychological support to be recognized as an integral part of care by the National Health System, emphasizing that there is no health without mental health, and emotional well-being should be a guaranteed right for all, not a privilege for the wealthy.
The event served as a platform to present the Manifesto for Free Psychological Support, which outlines five fundamental principles necessary to ensure accessible psychological support for everyone.
Psychological support is a public good and must be genuinely accessible to the entire population, as mental well-being is essential for achieving both individual and collective health.
Psychological support should be free for all. It cannot be a privilege for those who can afford it. The National Health System is the place to promote equity, yet with an average of only 2.3 psychologists per 100,000 inhabitants in public hospitals and clinics, many individuals in urgent need are forced to pay privately for professionals. A private psychotherapy session, costing between 50 and 80 euros per hour, is currently unaffordable for many in Italy.
All pediatric oncology departments in public hospitals must ensure the presence of a structured psychologist specialized in psycho-oncology, and all public pediatrics should have a psychologist specialized in developmental age. Emotional well-being contributes to the success of treatments, encourages adherence to therapies, and improves quality of life during illness. Currently, most psychologists have precarious contracts and/or are funded by third-sector organizations, such as Soleterre.
A national figure of the base psychologist must be established, providing free care in the community, starting with children, adolescents, and their families. Similar to the roles of general practitioners and pediatricians, the base psychologist could be created from existing psychologists and psychotherapists in collaboration with the National Health System. This would enable a rapid establishment of a widespread structure capable of promptly addressing an increasingly urgent need.
The government must align mental health spending with standards of other high-income countries, increasing from the current 3.4% to at least 10% of total health expenditure. This means Italy should allocate an additional 7.5 billion euros annually to ensure an adequate number of psychologists in the community and hospitals, thereby increasing the availability of psychological support within the National Health Service.
Thanks to fundraising efforts, Soleterre will begin to directly employ psychologists, creating public-private financing mechanisms with local health policy entities, ultimately leading to the structuring of professionals through freelance contracts and public competitions to ensure their recruitment by the National Health Service. This type of engagement allows for stable and continuous patient care, which is essential for true patient healing.