As a mental health counselor, practicing for 33 years, I agreed with the emotional tenor of Dr. Roston’s commentary (I need to do better. And I am doing the best I can), but I felt that it fell short of explaining the lack of mental health providers.
The state of Vermont decided to go the “preferred provider route” to supply mental health services to our communities. This meant that the state gives a large amount of state money to private nonprofit agencies with boards made up of local people (often friends of agency administrators), who never talk to counselors or team members. Only they sit at the table with state funders.
The pay in the field has been abysmal for decades, with agency management getting benefits, retirement golden parachutes, salaries and perks not available to workers. Years of employee complaints have resulted in no change from the state.
As cases became more complex and serious, these management/worker discrepancies only grew wider while the paperwork and work hours became more onerous.
Many private practice clinicians have given up accepting insurance at all, due to ridiculous application and authorization processes, and the fact that reimbursement rates are low. I pay more per hour to get my car worked on than I receive as a licensed counselor from insurers.
It takes months to get paid from most insurers, and the fact is they seem to do everything to keep from paying at all. If there is a lack of trained providers, we must look closely at the working conditions that drive people from the field and come up with more options not based on our current insurance-dependent system.
Can anyone argue that universal health care would result in longer waiting times?
Sara DeGennaro
Weathersfield