Pathways to psychotherapy: socio-political aspects

Abstract

The path to psychotherapy in Austria is looked at from a public health point of view. It can be stated that political discussion of psychological health as well as public plans to reach psychological health are missing. The institutional structures of psychotherapy which can be considered as one of the areas relevant for psychological public health are described and show inadequate numbers of psychotherapists, inadequate weekly hours of psychotherapy with big individual and regional differences. For people with special needs, e.g., children and young people and old people there are not enough adequate institutions or private practices. So far there has been no program planning or development of programs for the whole country. Indeed at the moment the regions have different models of financing of psychotherapy. Since the need for psychotherapy in Austria has never been researched and so far only German data have been transferred in an attempt to give some basic idea. The planning of infrastructure on these grounds seems questionable. In the area of professional qualification and training of psychotherapists the law on psychotherapy has brought clear standards and can be considered acceptable from a public health point of view.

Keywords:
Social policy, public health, service delivery, Austria, utilization, law on psychotherapy.