Why is mental health care so poor in this country?!
Question: Please don't tell me to love our country or get out. It's just a simple question.
Answers: Please don't tell me to love our country or get out. It's just a simple question.
As simple as your question is, there are many aspects to its answer.
The patient's embarrassment, ignorance, uninformed, self-diagnosis, belief that it's a matter of willpower, pressure from well-meaning-but-uninformed friends and family,
not knowing where to go, inability to access help due to money-time-schedule-transportation-respo...
AND when a person has severe mental illness he/she is unable to think and reason and function on their own - including the ability to access mental health care. He/she must have friends or family that will make the appointment and transport the mentally ill person, and often sit with them through the appointment, then see to it that they take their medication to become stable.
3 of us in my extended family have had serious mental health problems. Accessing the existing mental health care is expensive, the pay therapists get per hr. way exceeds what the working public make per hr. more like what we make in a day. And those needing it the most are the least capable of earning the money required to pay for it. Plus, those who are able to work are unable to schedule psych appointments during M-F "working hours".
Sadly, insurance companies have limited hospitalizations for psych patients. They rule the way treatment(??) is administered, choosing to rely on meds more than therapy.
Too few group-home living situations are available to our portion of the public incapable of living confidently on their own and addressing their own health and daily affairs.
We really do need more "homes" for those who are not capable of living on their own, whether temporary or longterm. We need something for families and adults where there is respite care in a safe and affordable supervised - non-hospital environment.
I have seen such a "transitional home" in operation, while imperfect, it has been a lifesaving and successful learning tool in many adult's lives.
How does the sick person pay for healthcare and medications? This question is universal to all of American Health Care.
Mental health care in not bad in this country and if you think that it is, then it's bad as anywhere else. You have good and bed doctors and therapists everywhere. You just need the right one to suit you ;-)
which country? Just another simple question :D
Well it isn't really bad..in other countries they will just throw you somewhere and let you die..
It's because far too many people think that mental illness is all faked. It's simple stupidity that make people think this way.
Because their are so many ineffective quacks. Mental issues have a bad stigma - "if you're going for therapy, you must be crazy" sort of thing.
Physical care is relatively straightforward - you either get better or you don't. Mental care is more abstract - what is progress? How do you know when you're mentally healthy?
Mental health is the way it is because our society places its blame for problems on the individual instead of the community around the individual. We view getting therapy a sign of weakness and mental instability indicating the person is "crazy" and worthy of disdain. Medical and pharmaceutical companies, which are huge and financially powerful, do not like the idea that therapy does not always need drugs and there is a certain rivalry between medicine and psychology.
EDIT: OMFG...Dexter's information is laughable! I went to the link to read "CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the internationally acclaimed author, Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York, Syracuse."
Hmm...Scientology...now there is a joke that will surprise...no shock you! LOL
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/prolinks/sci...
I think because #1 because people look down upon mental health issues......
like in my case I'm going to counseling starting tomrrow. But it's against ALOT of people's beliefs and my husband and his family do not support it.
Simple....Because corporate America is selfish and greedy and it doesn't give a damn about anything else or anyone else but $$$$$$$.
As far as medication, therapists, MDS, and counselors we are doing great! However depending upon the area, many temporary stay and extended stay facilities are far from decent. Additionally, although the American society in general has advanced in so many ways aka technologically and so on, they have not advanced spiritually in a way that recognizes and is humbled by the reality of mental illness and how it destroys families and lives. If one cannot find compassion, then at least be annoyed with how much government money is attributed to mental illness related issues, primarily local government.
Because doctors have stopped caring about their patient and started caring about their money. So they diagnose you with whatever and write you a prescription everytime
first...what country are you in please.
If we are talking about the USA...it's worth noting that the health care system in general absolutely sucks (for lack of a better word at the moment).
"NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, presents this first comprehensive state-by-state analysis of mental health care systems in 15 years. Every U.S. state has been scored on 39 specific criteria resulting in an overall grade and four sub-category grades for each state. The national average grade is D. Five states receive grades in the B range. Eight receive F's. None received As."
(quote it taken from the following link...the grades are truly disturbing to me)
http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?templat...
www.cchr.com
the truth will surprise you.
no, the truth will shock you.