I was okay with the profession being termed "mental health care," or even "psychiatric care." But about 15 years ago, the derogatory term "behavioral health care" started popping up, and very quickly ALL the organizations/clinics/agencies/state offices -- started using "behavioral health" as the term for those of us who have mental illness. To me, "behavioral health" means that (1) the whole purpose of therapy is to teach or "get us" to stop some unwanted behavior. Or behavior that's uncomfortable to the "client/consumer/patient" OR is uncomfortable for the therapist, or the general society. (2) "behavioral health" also means that how people "behave" is voluntary action, since it can be "trained out of you."

I was shocked when our mental health system and clinics suddenly became "behavioral health" clinics. It's disgusting, degrading, and insulting to us all. It also can cause professionals to become misguided and incompetent in any ability of help us out of our pain. "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" is one such useless practice. Yeah, it "works" for a while, but "how we think is how we act" only goes so far, and no further. CBT delights the field because it is "short term therapy," and, so guess what -- it doesn't cost much! Well, you get what you pay for, Mr. and Ms. Congress. Don't pay for good mental health services, then go ahead and complain about homeless people, "public nuisance" behavior, unfortunate family members who are alone to take care of their loved ones who can't get any mental health benefits at all. One man I know, who lost his way after the mental health drop in centers here were closed down, did what the police considered nuisance behavior, and beat him to death. Woe to all of us involved, esp. now that we have people at the top who want to demolish Social Security and Medicaid.