President of the Republic Receives Delegation of the Croatian Psychological Chamber

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović has received a delegation from the Croatian Psychological Chamber made up of its president Andreja Bogdan and volunteers from the Telephone Counselling Network including Nada Kegalj, Anita Lauri Korajlija and Inge Vlašić Cicvarić. They informed him of activities undertaken by volunteer psychologists during the coronavirus crisis and in the aftermath of the earthquake in Zagreb.

The Telephone Counselling Network has been launched because psychologists wanted to provide assistance to citizens during the crisis situation and, as they underlined, they care for the mental health of the nation. To this end, the Telephone Counselling Network was launched on 20 March with 180 psychologists providing around-the-clock assistance on 25 telephone lines in all the Croatian counties. As they have stated, in the past month they have had over 1,200 calls, and the Network has prepared an online handbook for citizens and professionals, which is available to the general public and more than 7,500 people have already used it.

In the Croatian Psychological Chamber they feel that anywhere between two and five percent of the people in Croatia may have lasting psychological effects from this crisis. Therefore, they caution that the number of psychologists does not meet the actual needs in the healthcare, social care and education systems, even though the Chamber has over 4,000 members who can provide psychological assistance and support.