The lack of psychologists saturates public mental health care in the Balearic Islands.

PalmClara is on sick leave due to a situation of "systematic harassment." "I clicked. I exploded, and when I got to my GP's office, I couldn't stop crying. I was choking. I think I'd endured too much," she says. In addition to the stress of an "inhumane" way of working, she also suffered several bouts of grief due to miscarriages. "They gave me medication, and I honestly think I needed it," she admits. They put her on hold for an appointment with a social security psychologist. Help arrived months later. Her case exemplifies the shortage of public therapists: at the end of 2023, the Balearic Islands had 71 clinical psychologists, a ratio of just 5.9 professionals per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure is well below the European average (18 per 100,000 inhabitants) and doesn't even come close, for example, to that of Germany, where they have 41 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Director General of Mental Health, Carme Bosch, acknowledges that "the situation is complicated," although she clarifies that the lack of psychologists in the islands' public health system is "common in the rest of Spain." She explains that this is due to the fact that the Ministry of Health is barely offering positions for Resident Psychologist Intern (PIR), equivalent to the MIR (Resident Psychologist), which does cover other fields of medicine. "The specialization law that regulates health professions for mental health care requires that clinical psychologists fill these positions. The need exceeds the supply," she explains. Therefore, like other professionals consulted, she is calling for an increase in positions or protocols that allow for expanded coverage. In this sense, Catalonia has become a "benchmark in emotional well-being" and has found the legal formula to incorporate 400 psychologists into the public health system.

The president of the College of Psychologists of the Balearic Islands, Javier Torres, urges the Government to "make a decision" and fill the positions with general health psychologists. "The Ministry offers five or six PIRs in the Islands each year. This is insufficient, and solutions must be found. If Catalonia has achieved this, we must analyze how to replicate the formula legislatively," he explains, referring to a measure opposed by the Spanish Society of Clinical Psychology (ANPIR), which defends the years of training invested. Torres disagrees: "There is no illegality. The specialist passes the PIR exam and four years of residency. The rest have completed a two-year qualifying master's degree with both theory and practice. It's not just about the years of training, but about the experience, having worked with a broad range of cases that qualifies them to work in care. And, if necessary, they refer to other resources," he continues.

Torres' proposal seeks to solve the problem. "If the Ministry were to create 500 positions and fill them, there would be no problem, but that's not the case. Furthermore, in a few years, the problem will worsen with the upcoming retirements. Psychological care for citizens is not a whim, but a right to receive it free of charge," he adds. ~BK_S Primary Care "would prevent chronicization, and many sick leaves would be shortened because work would be done to promote earlier recovery." Four will suffer some disorder during their lifetime, according to recent data from the Ministry of Health. Most prescribed drugs: 87,600 people were taking them in the first quarter of 2025.

"Our system is not prepared to meet its demand, especially after the pandemic," acknowledges Bosch, who estimates that at least 42 psychologists are needed to "redesign" nine. All of them are in health centers in Mallorca, and after the government hired them this year, the starting number was just four.

Precariousness, the housing problem, and the preeminence of social media and technology have shaped a new order that is "difficult to manage," says Bosch. "Social phenomena are outpacing the medical response. We've gone from zero to one hundred. We must also focus on raising awareness, providing society with tools so that not everything falls on the healthcare system. As a society, we must be able to make coherent demands and educate people on healthier emotional management."

Mental health has never been included in the decree guaranteeing the delay, so there are no official waiting lists for visits to a psychologist. But the delays are undeniable. "It's terrifying that a person with a psychological problem that limits them and affects their relationships has to wait months for a consultation," denounces Torres, who also advocates for prevention.

The Balearic Islands have a mental health plan created for the period 2016-2022, and the regional government announced the launch of the next one (2023-2029), which is still unpublished. The delay is due, according to Bosch, to the fact that the Ministry of Health is working on "reorganizing resources and co-governing with other ministries such as Health and Social Affairs." The regional government promises "an adjustment of healthcare needs" along the lines outlined by the Ministry. "There will be more joint actions, the work will be more transversal, it will not be so focused on Health, and we will focus on promotion and prevention."

Xavier Delgado, a clinical psychologist at the Sona Monda Health Center in Inca, notes that there are "very few resources" and agrees with the diagnosis of the new mental health plan. "We need to think about what we do and why. A strategic vision. Many administrations work in this area, such as Dependency, Justice, Social Services, and IMAS, among others, but coordination is lacking. There is a lot of demand and little organization," he states, illustrating this with an example: in a meeting with colleagues, they realized that seven people were caring for one person.

Delgado defends the benefits of working in a network. At his health center, different professionals meet once a month to see how they can help each other and be more operational and efficient. They advise doctors on how to train them and improve this primary care. Among his proposals is to incentivize work in the public system "for those who have a position and prioritize private work." In this way, the Administration would not be neglected. He also calls for "a culture of responsibility" because "between 10 and 20%" of patients don't attend their appointments or cancel their appointments in a "context of saturation."