Psychological interventions in the Italian national health system: appropriateness and accountability.

Abstract

In the field of clinical governance, the search for progressive high-quality health interventions is accompanied by the different health values they assume for the different stakeholders involved. With increasing frequency, the value of clinical psychology and psychotherapy interventions in the public service is also supported by their ability to be appropriate and measurable in terms of their effectiveness. As such, their expected future is one of systematic inclusion within increasingly defined and specific care pathways. The challenge that this evolution poses is complex from an epistemologicalmethodological point of view because it must include the various perspectives from which one looks at the nature of these interventions. Clinical appropriateness, as a meta-level variable, and accountability go beyond the simplistic/generic cost-benefit assessment of services and are proposed as a necessary conceptual framework for an adequate determination of outcomes.