One in five Americans will receive a psychiatric diagnosis this year. Why isn't mental health care a bigger priority? “’Normal’ people don’t need mental health care.” That’s what we, as a culture, tell ourselves. Mental health care, after all, is for “those people." The homeless guy we drive past on our daily commute, for example, might be someone who needs mental health care--or someone with an addiction, or maybe a dangerous criminal we hear about on the news. When we h

If you're avoiding mental health treatment for fear of losing your job, take heart. You may have more options than you think. Vanessa drifted into my office and folded herself onto the couch. Her tired eyes were fixed firmly on the carpet. "They're going to fire me. I can't sleep. I can't keep up," she muttered. Vanessa said she'd experienced mood issues for years, but had always felt good about her work as a nurse, so she'd never sought treatment. In recent months, her depr

The Texas legislature votes that existing state laws don’t go far enough to protect patients’ access to mental health care. It’s no accident that the Texas capitol building stands about fifteen feet taller than its domed federal counterpart in Washington, DC. In both their buildings and their attitudes, Texans like to stand a little taller, symbolizing their characteristic independence. Texas' rugged individualism has even, at times, led state lawmakers to threaten secession

Definition Actuary : 1. Insurance. a person who computes premium rates, dividends, and assesses risk via probabilities based on statistical records. 2.(formerly) a registrar or clerk. Monetary risk is something we all contend with when we take out our healthcare wallet —especially when it comes to investing in mental health. Whether you’re an individual consumer or a corporation contracting for benefits, it can be hard to measure the value of a medical endeavor. How can we m

In medicine, adding the words “evidence” and “valid” to an instrument, treatment, or concept lends them a sense of gravity and certainty—almost as if the words themselves are some kind of effectiveness insurance policy. An Evidence Based Treatment is a method of care developed by experimental design and in-depth analysis of statistical data. The goal: to derive the most reliable, vetted practice guidelines for a particular diagnosis. Typical names for it are Evidence-Based Me