The Knesset Health Committee held a discussion today (Wednesday) at the request of MK Naama Lazimi of the Labor Party, on the open salary agreement for psychologists in the public service.
MK Naama Lizami, Photo: Shira Peleg
During the discussion, it emerged that more than two months after the outbreak of the war, there are still no budgets to raise the salaries of psychologists who earn NIS 50 an hour in the public service. Due to the low salaries, only a third of psychologists in Israel work in the public system, usually on a part-time basis. The rest turn to the private market. As a result, there is a huge shortage of psychologists in the public service.
Ministry of Health data presented at the hearing show that even before the war, about 30% of those insured by the health funds sought mental health assistance, but the system provided a response to only 5% of those who contacted them. The waiting time for treatment in the central region was about a year on average, and the waiting time for diagnosis was about a year and a half.
The position document, submitted ahead of the discussion by the Forum of Organizations for Public Psychology, warns that the large number and scope of events in recent times creates a reality in which every citizen of Israel experiences a crisis experience personally, family or community that immediately affects his mental health. The country's population, which even before the war suffered from PTSD, is already suffering from the consequences of the current war. "The current crisis encounters a depleted, neglected and privatized public psychology system whose ability to respond to a population in need of mental health services is low."
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Ignoring the educational psychologists
The Finance Ministry is currently discussing with the Histadrut the salary agreement for psychologists in the public service, and the forum of organizations says that a significant improvement in wages is needed in order to return those who turned to the private market. A few days ago, an outline was published between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut, regarding the provision of grants for absorption and increasing the number of positions for psychologists in the Ministry of Health. However, the agreement does not address the issue of the low base salary paid to psychologists in the public service, and it leaves out about 3500,<> educational psychologists and interns.
As mentioned, the discussion revealed that there are still no budgets for raising the salaries of psychologists, despite the awareness that the distress and demand are only intensifying. At the end of the discussion, the members of the Health Committee decided that the Ministry of Finance should apply the outline of the grants to educational psychologists as well, and demanded that the Ministries of Health, Finance and the Histadrut reach an appropriate salary agreement for psychologists in the public service. Lazimi said: "It is illogical and unreasonable that the State of Israel does not understand that the rehabilitation of the public mental health system, which has been neglected and dried up for years, must begin with raising the salaries of psychologists. The enormous mental health crisis of our time will continue to intensify if this serious failure is not corrected and as soon as possible."
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