Heart health: Psychotherapists call for holistic prevention recommendations
The Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) has submitted a statement on the draft bill for a Healthy Heart Act at the hearing held at the Federal Ministry of Health. In its statement, the BPtK criticizes the inadequate preventive measures in the draft, which are limited to the administration of medication.
“Preventive measures such as statins, drugs to stop smoking and additional health checks come far too late. Instead, the Healthy Heart Bill should support preventive measures and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The promotion of medicinal Prevention alone is not sufficient and represents a step backwards," says Dr. Andrea Benecke, President of the BPtK. Cornelia Metge, Board Member of the BPtK, adds: "Health literacy that leads to a healthy lifestyle should be taught to children and young people at an early age. This literacy cannot be replaced by medication."
The BPtK sees another error in the fact that the draft bill only takes organic risks of cardiovascular diseases into account. Stress, inadequate stress management and mental illnesses are also relevant factors for cardiovascular diseases. For this reason, the BPtK demands that psychotherapists should finally be able to make recommendations for prevention.
In addition, it is unacceptable for the BPtK that the draft bill violates the basic principles of evidence-based medicine and circumvent the structured method evaluation by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). The BPtK firmly rejects the idea that the Federal Ministry for Health should be empowered to decide by legal order on the design of health examinations and benefit entitlements without taking into account the quality and cost-effectiveness requirements anchored in the Social Code Book V and the proven structures of the G-BA.
You can find the BPtK’s statement on the draft bill to strengthen heart health here.
Source: Berlin
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Source: nachrichten.ag
