[indigoChild337]

Hello All,

I just wanted to share a little bit about my story since it has me so very overwhelmed, and I am certain I am not the only one.

Last week I met my brink and spent six hours in a psychiatric clinic for a "free" assessment. (I put free in quotes because anyone who is anyone knows time isn't free, especially with mental illness in play.) During this time I had my vitals checked by a triage nurse, and received a lengthy inquiry into my nasty personal history. Mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, childhood abuse, marital abuse, sexual abuse, and on and on it went. So, after picking at my scabs and rehashing my last psych ward visit, I finally sat down with a psychiatrist.

During this time he asked me a few more of the invasive but necessary questions and signed me up for a PHP- Partial Hospitalization Program - for 10-20 days. He used the words "extremely intensive" as descriptors. A great sigh of relieve followed fear of the unknown until I sat myself across from the man in charge of finances...

Turns out, my insurance covers medical treatment but not mental health. Again, anyone who is anyone could argue these are interchangeable. Anyway, he informed me it was going to cost four thousand dollars to receive the intervention I so desperately need. After the final glimmer of hope went out in my eyes, I spent the rest of the evening eating tacos and crying into my vodka.

I can't, for the life of me, figure out why mental health care resources are SO inaccessible(- other than the fact that supply and demand are not cohesive- which I aim to improve on as a psychology student myself). What startles me is that EIGHT THOUSAND people go home to die each year because they don't have medical insurance that demonstrates any sort of efficacy. What then would that number look like for psychiatric patients?

[ThisWayOut]

I'm sorry you went through such a stressful assessment for seemingly "no reason"

You might want to look into the new mental health parity law that went into effect in the us. While it doesn't cover medicare, I think it holds for all private insurance as well as medicaid. Some insurance companies are trying to avoid it, but they have to provide mental health benefits comprable to other health care benefits...
it really does suck when there is no access. I recieve medicare, so technically my insurance doesn't have to cover it, but they do...
also, 6 hours is nuts! I'm sorry it took so long.

I'm sorry, that sounds unpleasant and frustrating and horrid. And when you were trying to get help.

[indigoChild337]

Thank you both for your kindness and support. That is a good point @ThisWayOut! I will certainly take a look. This was more about pouring this out of me and finding some acceptance. I have been white knuckling it for ten years. I am just exhausted.

[ThisWayOut]

Mental health care here (the US) definitely does suck (overall), and depending on the region of the country, it's ridiculously difficult to access.
Any luck getting access to the treatment that was recommended?

[ruh roh]

Mental health parity isn't all it's cracked up to be. Just as with physical health care, it has to be deemed medically necessary. All they have to do is say it's not necessary. Here is a good primer on it:NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | NAMI: The National Alliance on Mental Illness