To all those who have been seeking mental health treatment in the past six months because we're in a pandemic and it's really stressful, how easy is has it been? (It hasn't been, I know. I'm sorry.)
But I ask this because I think people assume it's easy to find help. Until they do it. And then they might think that it's easier somehow for people who have serious needs. It isn't.
And the hardest part of all is finding help that acknowledges the problems of the current system.
It's practically impossible in this country to access peer support outside of the Medicaid system.
That often times the only answer is call the cops or go check yourself into a psych hospital. And neither of these are acceptable answers.
But these are the choices we offer people who have mental health needs right now and that is a failure of us as a country and a failure of the professions of the mental health system.
I went into policy because I like having a clear plan to fix thing, so what do we do? As Kathy said, making sure peer support and peer respite is available to every single person who needs it would be a good first step.
That means mandating that insurance companies cover peer support and peer respite and that all of the federal health insurance programs cover it. While we're at it, we should mandate insurance coverage of counseling and remove all barriers related to prior authorization.
(Did you know that currently Medicare and most other insurance doesn't cover marriage and family therapy? Which is a random distinction that doesn't actually make any sense to me.)
In addition, we need to pay providers. There need to actually be reasonable rates set for psychologists and psychiatrists that are not based on medication. And that process of getting reimbursement for the providers should not be put on the person receiving services.
And that's really what I'd like to see change about the system. we put all of the burden right now on a person seeking help rather than offering the right kind of help to people who need it. So let's do that more.
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