Slovenia passes law regulating psychotherapy

The National Assembly of Slovenia has passed a bill that regulates psychotherapy, making its role in the public health system much more prominent.

The contentious proposal has seen mental health experts divided over a number of issues, most notably qualifications. What is more, the passage of the bill was deferred over suspicion of a conflict of interest over the summer, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Before the new law was passed anybody could provide psychotherapy services, no matter their qualifications, and without any adequate oversight. The field has not been regulated for 20 years, and within the public healthcare system, mental health services have been provided, but only to a limited extent. The situation prompted many people to turn to the private market, which has been so far unregulated.

The new law addresses these issues in a bid to make the services more accessible.

"It sets training and education conditions. And above all it opens a path to use psychotherapy services with public health insurance coverage, which will make them much more accessible," according to Health Ministry State Secretary Denis Kordež.

Passed on 23 October, the bill allows two paths to qualifications, the first being professional training for a person with an MBA in psychology, pedagogy, social studies or medicine, and the second an MBA in psychotherapy, a programme no Slovenian university is offering at the moment.

The private psychotherapy market meanwhile features providers such as the Ljubljana branch of the Sigmund Freud University Vienna and the Ljubljana Faculty of Theology.

Debating the bill before the vote, opposition MP Jožef Horvat talked about long waiting times. It can take up to six years for a patient in Slovenia to see a mental health specialist, he said, pointing out that in 2021, Slovenia had the highest suicide rate per capita in the EU - 19.8 deaths per 100,000 people.

His New Slovenia (NSi) party peer Iva Dimic acknowledged that the bill has been divisive, but underlined that the field needed to be regulated to prevent self-declared therapists from inflicting damage on patients. Half of the MPs representing the NSi, a Christian democratic party, voted in favour of the bill as did the ruling Freedom Movement party, while the junior coalition parties abstained, proving yet again how divisive the new law is.

Contentious bill raising concerns

One of the reasons why the bill has been a highly controversial piece of legislation is that in July reports emerged that one of its co-authors, psychiatrist Mojca Zvezdana Dernovšek, was named dean of a new private school for therapists, raising concern about a potential conflict of interest.

The coalition then decided to defer the passage of the bill until now and added a safeguard in the form of a provision under which relevant study programmes will be limited only to public universities in the first five years after the new system is introduced.

The anti-corruption watchdog looked into the matter in July and referred the case to the Public Sector Inspectorate and the police, having identified suspicions of a potential abuse of position or the use of insider information for personal gain.

Also having made the headlines was the fact that advisor to the health minister Aleš Živkovič, another co-author of the bill, started a psychotherapy practice last year, with media reports pointing out that the new law allows such companies to get public funds.

Having been in the making for months, the bill has also seen complaints by psychiatrists and psychologists who have argued that it caters to private interests and creates a crack in the public system through which insufficiently trained therapists will enter. On the other hand, private providers of psychotherapy services have welcomed the regulation.

Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA