Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

The U.S. is failing at mental health care

Linda Girgis, MD
Conditions
June 13, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share

Where I practice, the process of referring a patient suffering a mental illness is quite infuriating. The wait to get in to see a psychiatrist or psychologist can be months all the while patients are suffering. Worse yet, with certain insurances, there are just no mental health providers available for any of their covered patients. The failure of treating mental health disease in the U.S. is glaring.

In the U.S., approximately one in 25 people suffer a mental illness in any given year that limits one or more life activities. Despite the fact that mental illness is so prevalent, service to treat these disorders is not. Many psychiatrists now operate a cash-based practice because they were losing money treating patients. And many patients just cannot afford treatment out-of-pocket.

As a primary care doctor, I treat a host of various mental health issues including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and more. However, there may come a point in treatment that I am outside my comfort zone and a referral to a specialist is the most appropriate course of treatment. When this is not available, there is little that can be done for the patient. I can continue to practice outside of my area of expertise but this is not truly a good idea for the patient or myself. The patient may end up in the ER if a worsening of the disease ensues. Here again, this is not the best course of action. The patient may simply give up in this flawed system and hide their disorder.

Many stigmas exist around mental illness and this deficiency in the medical system perpetuates this. Mental health issues, thus, appear to be deemed less important than physical illnesses. If they were equal, the coverage should be the same. However, benefits for mental health care are covered differently than other diseases. Different customer service lines are in place making it even harder for a patient to admit that they may be experiencing a mental health problem.

While many in the general population stigmatize mental health disorders, the medical community should not. A patient with a mental illness should be able to seek and obtain medical care as easily as a patient with a physical disorder. Mental illness can lead to dire consequences, just like physical disease. Additionally, mental illness may have a confounding negative interaction on physical illnesses. For example, in patients who suffered a heart attack, those who also suffer depression tend to demonstrate a higher mortality rate and their one-year survival rate is worse than those without depression.

How does the system fail those suffering mental health illnesses?

  • Services are more difficult to secure. Access is a true problem and many with mental illness go without treatment simply because they cannot obtain an appointment to see a specialist.
  • Patients with mental illness are differentiated from those with physical disorders from the moment they receive their health insurance cards. Look at your card and you will see a phone number to call for mental health coverage. Both should be treated equally.
  • Physical illnesses are seen as more urgent. While anxiety or a panic attack do not tend to be life-threatening, they can be disabling for those suffering from them. Prompt care should be just as available to them as if they had an urgent physical condition.
  • Many mental health services are not covered forcing patients to choose whether to pay for care themselves or go without.

In our current times, research provides a sea of knowledge of mental health disease. However, if patients cannot benefit from this knowledge it is really rather useless. Until we equalize mental and physical disease, stigmas remain and we enhance the patient suffering.

Linda Girgis is a family physician who blogs at Dr. Linda.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

A fight for the heart and soul of health care

June 13, 2018 Kevin 5
…
Next

Am I the cold and detached physician?

June 13, 2018 Kevin 2
…

Tagged as: Primary Care, Psychiatry

Post navigation

< Previous Post
A fight for the heart and soul of health care
Next Post >
Am I the cold and detached physician?

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Linda Girgis, MD

  • Stand up and be heard. But don’t hate your doctor.

    Linda Girgis, MD
  • Why this physician believes in Santa Claus

    Linda Girgis, MD
  • Has health care lost its humanity?

    Linda Girgis, MD

Related Posts

  • Sharing mental health issues on social media

    Tarena Lofton
  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Improve mental health by improving how we finance health care

    Steven Siegel, MD, PhD
  • A step forward: a way to advance the mental health of health care professionals

    Mattie Renn, Thomas Pak, and Corey Feist, JD, MBA
  • The promise and challenge of integrating primary care into community-based mental health centers

    Betty Rabinowitz, MD
  • Turn physicians into powerful health care influencers

    Kevin Pho, MD

More in Conditions

  • Does silence as a faculty retention strategy in academic medicine and health sciences work?

    Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA
  • Why personal responsibility is not enough in the fight against nicotine addiction

    Travis Douglass, MD
  • AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support

    Tim Rubin, PsyD
  • What prostate cancer taught this physician about being a patient

    Francisco M. Torres, MD
  • Why ADHD in women is finally getting the attention it deserves

    Arti Lal, MD
  • Why ruling out sepsis in emergency departments can be lifesaving

    Claude M. D'Antonio, Jr., MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • The hidden cost of delaying back surgery

      Gbolahan Okubadejo, MD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Are quotas a solution to physician shortages?

      Jacob Murphy | Education
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • The invisible weight carried by Black female physicians

      Trisza Leann Ray, DO | Physician
    • A female doctor’s day: exhaustion, sacrifice, and a single moment of joy

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Addressing America’s reliance on psychotropic medication [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The hidden cost of malpractice: Why doctors are losing control

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • Rediscovering the soul of medicine in the quiet of a Sunday morning

      Syed Ahmad Moosa, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 4 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • The hidden cost of delaying back surgery

      Gbolahan Okubadejo, MD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Are quotas a solution to physician shortages?

      Jacob Murphy | Education
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • The invisible weight carried by Black female physicians

      Trisza Leann Ray, DO | Physician
    • A female doctor’s day: exhaustion, sacrifice, and a single moment of joy

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Addressing America’s reliance on psychotropic medication [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • The hidden cost of malpractice: Why doctors are losing control

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • Rediscovering the soul of medicine in the quiet of a Sunday morning

      Syed Ahmad Moosa, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

The U.S. is failing at mental health care
4 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...