You’ve just finished an emotional and complicated session with a client. It’s the end of the day and you’ve been in back-to-back sessions for eight hours in a row. Your client leaves and you check your phone. You have three voicemails and four emails from prospective clients who need your help.
You check your schedule and sigh. Americans are seeking mental health support in greater numbers than any other point in history, and your planner is booked all day, every day, for the next six weeks. It’s great for business, but you feel stressed and guilty. Stressed, because you’ve had a long day and you need to call all these people back before you can go home. Guilty, because you know they need help – and you have the skills and experience to make a difference – but you simply can’t fit them in.
We don’t even have to ask you to picture that in your mind, right? It’s a daily reality for many mental health professionals around the country. It’s probably a situation you find yourself in every other day. And while it’s great that more people are reaching out and asking for help when they need it, you know this workload isn’t sustainable. You’re feeling a little burnt out, and you’re not alone.
About 23 million American adults receive mental health services every year, but an estimated 38% of the population still don’t receive the services they need. Department of Labor data indicates there are approximately 552,000 mental health professionals practicing in the United States. It’s prompted some to question whether there’s a shortage of mental health professionals in America.
So what can you do about it? How can you help people access mental health services even if you’re unable to make space in your own schedule? Is there a solution to better manage resources?
Ravel Mental Health is tackling this issue head on. Learn what we’re doing to help.
Do We Really Have a Mental Health Services Shortage?
The National Projections of Supple and Demand for Selected Behavioral Health Practitioners report, released by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2016, contained some interesting findings. It predicted shortages for psychiatrists; clinical, counseling, and school psychologists; mental health and substance abuse social workers; and marriage and family therapists, by 2025.
This is subject to a lot of variables, including population growth, population aging, economic conditions, insurance trends, retirement, training, geography, and more. Throw a global pandemic into the mix, however, and demand has skyrocketed. A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last August said that “U.S. adults reported considerably elevated adverse mental health conditions associated with COVID-19.” This included:
- 31% were experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression
- 26% were experiencing trauma/stress-related disorder symptoms
- 13% were using substances
- 11% were seriously considering death by suicide
This increase put a lot of pressure on an industry already struggling with resources. It’s undoubtedly something you’ve experienced first-hand, through the course of your own clinical practice. That big stack of phone messages to return at the end of the day is a good indicator. Mental health services should be accessible, but it’s going to take time to train enough providers to fill the gap. That means it’s on us. Mental health professionals need to find a better way to deliver services.
The Mental Health Industry Needs Better Scheduling
Why am I talking about this? My name is Nancy Cowden and I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from San Diego, California. I’ve been working in mental health for about 20 years and running my own practice for nine. If I’m completely honest, the thing that causes the majority of my work-related headaches is my booking system – especially when things are busy.
Just this morning, I’ve had five calls, but I have no availability to take new clients. All these people are looking for therapy, but I can’t help them. They’re frustrated because they can’t find someone. There are no systems currently available that let you search providers’ profiles and see straight away if they have availability, or if they’re even still working and not retired.
When they get turned away, they have to start the process again. The trouble is that most people are at or near a crisis point when they reach out for help. Then they’re feeling overwhelmed trying to find a therapist. We need to do better to ensure these people get the support they need.
The biggest hurdles I’ve identified are:
- Finding someone who has appointments available.
- Finding someone who takes the right insurance.
- Finding someone who specializes in what the client needs.
Three simple things. That’s it.
Imagine if providers were able to communicate these things from the outset? It would dramatically speed up the process on both sides. For clients, this would mean a simple and easy process that would promote access to mental health services. For providers, this means less administrative time and reduced stress due to a significant decrease in the number of calls and emails to return.
That’s why I’m creating a comprehensive directory where people can find providers who meet their therapeutic needs and schedules, where they can just click through and make an appointment. Providers can then respond with any necessary intake forms. It will fundamentally change the way we interact with prospective clients, which will directly impact America’s mental health crisis.
Meet America’s New Go-To Mental Health Booking System
Ravel Mental Health is an online booking system that is set to revolutionize the mental health industry. It’s currently in the alpha testing phase, but it about to move to the beta testing phase and will launch in mid-2021. It has user-friendly functionality that allows providers to define their skillset and personal attributes with a set of inclusive filters. Clients can then use these filters to find someone who is a perfect match – from their area of expertise, to their preferred treatment modality, language spoken, location, insurance providers, and more.
Say, for example, they’re looking for a female psychiatrist with experience dealing with eating disorders. Or a male psychologist who speaks Spanish and specializes in substance use disorders. Or a social worker with a gift for supporting LGBTIAQ+ teens experiencing suicidal ideation. Or someone who follows the same religion and can understand the relevant cultural framework.
Once clients have found someone they like, they can check their schedule on the spot to see if the provider has any availability. If they do, they can book an appointment. If not, they can move on to the next match in the list of results. And so on. It takes the guesswork out of the process, which reduces the stress of trying to find someone and the risk of being rejected over and over again.
Simply put, it’s a better way to provide mental health services.
What This Means for Mental Health Professionals
If you’re a mental health professional and you can relate to the issues we’ve addressed in this article, it’s time to take action. You can take a practical step towards tackling America’s mental health crisis – and it’s just as easy as creating a new Facebook account.
Publishing a list of timeslots in which you’re available to help people isn’t just about convenience. It’s about responsibility. Millions of Americans need the mental health services you provide, and this will make it easier than ever for them to connect with you online. This also means you won’t have to keep feeling stressed and guilty about turning away people who need mental health support. No more phone calls hanging over your head. No more administrative stress. Everyone wins.
The next step is to sign up for our email newsletter. We’ll start taking registrations soon to recruit likeminded mental health professionals wanting to do things differently.
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