We may have excellent mental health care but it's not that easy to come by. The pandemic really exacerbated the problem.
Since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States
more than a year ago, the number of people in need of
mental health services has surged. But many say that they are languishing on waiting lists, making call after call only to be turned away, with affordable options tough to find. Providers, who have long been in short supply, are stretched thin.
“Never at any time in my practice have I had a five-person waiting list,” said Brooke Huminski, a psychotherapist and licensed independent clinical social worker in Providence, R.I., who specializes in treating people with eating disorders.
Dr. Gregory Scott Brown, the director of an outpatient psychiatry clinic in Austin, Texas, said he recently had to hire an additional nurse practitioner to help care for more patients. “I’m busier than ever and just don’t have room,” he said. “I’m full.”
“There’s always been more demand for services than there are mental health providers to provide them,” Dr. Wright said. “I think what the pandemic has done is really laid bare that discrepancy.”
In August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a
report which concluded that in late June,
40 percent of adults in the United States had been struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues, and rates of depression and anxiety had risen since 2019. (Gemmie's note - and that doesn't include children who weren't taking the 'no school in person' thing very well)
Full article with a lot of good info here:
‘Nobody Has Openings’: Mental Health Providers Struggle to Meet Demand (Published 2021)