Community Health Care Resources That Don’t Exist
I write about the US mental healthcare system because that is where I live and the system I have experience with.
I know it’s not the only one with problems, though. This week, I’ve encountered a couple of examples. In both, the common denominator is that there is supposed to be some affordable mental healthcare available for people who aren’t currently in an in-patient system, but it’s not there.
First, let’s talk about Canada, where the public mental health system is so under-staffed and under-funded that it can be quite difficult even to get an appointment, and private care just isn’t affordable:
Get therapy or pay rent? Millennials, Gen Z making hard choices when it comes to mental health.
This is similar to what we’ve seen in the US. Insurance isn’t covering mental healthcare at sustainable levels, and private care is only within reach of a small percentage of the population. So, millions of people go without help. Canada isn’t doing any better when it comes to treating mental health.
Neither is Australia:
Psychiatrists and families call for funding overhaul of Queensland’s broken mental health system
In this article, we learn about Angelica Johnson:
But on May 17, she was released after the treatment authority was amended from inpatient care to treatment in the community. Her family says the hospital made no attempt to substantiate where she planned to live. Her body was found three days later.
This is tragic but also an example of what happens across mental healthcare systems around the world every day. Why was Angelica released? No one seems to know. The hospital claims she was well enough to take care of herself. Not everyone agrees. Given the result, it’s hard to believe she was.
While most cases are not as obvious, the situation is familiar. If we get to a point where someone can get inpatient treatment, they are often released to this mysterious community-based care program. However, no one coordinates that care or even confirms if it’s available. Many times, it’s not. These community care resources are few and far between but are expected to fill a growing need. The need is much larger than they can handle.
Myriad and complicated histories have led us here. Fixing it won’t be easy, but we also have to acknowledge the truth of our mental health care systems.
As societies, we don’t care enough to do the hard work required to change it. If we cared, we wouldn’t have years and years of stories like this. We wouldn’t have millions of people having to choose between eating and their mental health or being dumped into a system that offers no help.
But we do, and very few leaders are even talking about making the massive investments necessary to overhaul the system.
Because we don’t care.
