“At the moment I have nothing free. Maybe again in three or four months. Please contact other colleagues.”How to find a therapist The responses to inquiries from six other psychotherapists in Berlin and Brandenburg are similar. There is no therapy place to be found in a hurry.
Patients have to wait an average of 20 weeks from the first inquiry to the start of treatment. In total, there are around 27,000 certified psychotherapists in Germany. This contrasts with an estimated three to four million people with depression. “Contrary to reports to the contrary, the number of illnesses has not increased significantly in the past 15 years, but more people are now making use of psychotherapeutic help,” says Dietrich Munz, President of the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BBK). According to the BBK, the number of patients who saw a psychotherapist within a quarter increased from 840,000 to 1.25 million between 2004 and 2014. The requirement planning for the practices, on the other hand, dates from 1999 and has hardly been adjusted since then.
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A psychotherapist is a protected term.. How to find a therapist
Psychotherapists are either medical professionals with corresponding specialist training or psychologists (in rarer cases also pedagogues) with state-recognized additional training. Only these professional groups are allowed to use the designation psychotherapist. Naturopaths are not one of them.
Psychotherapists without a health insurance license can open a private practice and treat private patients. How to find a therapist In exceptional cases, however, the health insurance companies also cover treatment costs in private practice – for example, if no other therapist has any vacancies and the patient cannot wait.
Since 2017 there has also been the option of acute treatment for people in severe mental crisis. In contrast to regular therapy. It can start without trial sessions and does not need to approve by the health insurance company in advance. But only needs to communicate to them. 12 to 24 therapy units are possible in acute treatment, and the main goal is to stabilize the patient.
A therapist with statutory health insurance How to find a therapist
Sometimes, the associations also arrange psychotherapy places, for example, in Bavaria. The back also offers a tracing service. Sometimes a call to the health insurance company can also be helpful, in which you describe the urgency again. Many cash registers know where there are vacancies or have an appointment service.
If patients cannot find treatment with a contracted psychotherapist within a reasonable time, they can also contact a licensed, i.e., state-approved psychotherapist with a private practice. How to find a therapist Paragraph 13, Paragraph 3 of the Social Security Code V allows the fund to claim costs for any necessary treatment it has procured if it could not provide the service on time. Such a service can be psychotherapy in private practice. The entitlement applies to all statutory health insurance companies.
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