<p>In light of the stress on the modern college student, I'm appalled by the stories I'm hearing about kids not being able to get appointments with campus mental health professionals. Have heard it is also difficult in the private sector. Apparently, psychologists don't tend to have office staff and so don't even return phone calls, or at least not to new patients they are too busy to accept. Are they that busy? The one time I saw my college counselor, it did not appear he was in much demand. </p>
<p>The daughter of a friend has been trying for a month to get the school psychologist the campus school health center referred her to, to answer her phone messages. It seems the psychologist doesn't have her own office on campus, since the physician gave the girl a phone number. Finally, my friend contacted the health center to question how it was that a student could call 3 times and not get a phone call back for a whole month. She threw a fit and now the D has an appointment. When she told her story to friends, she heard similar tales from others.</p>
<p>The only medical professionals I wasn't able to easily get an appointment with were endocrinologists and neuro-developmentalists.</p>
<p>Many college counseling centers are dramatically low on funding, have restrictions on the number of sessions each individual is allowed, and may have waiting lists. Colleges often do NOT put enough funding into mental health, and no one complains until something bad happens.</p>
<p>As for therapists outside of colleges, most responsible therapists DO call back within 24 hours. If they don’t, then the individual needs to find someone else to contact. It is possible that there may be a smaller number of therapists in rural areas outside of some colleges, but there should be a sufficient number of qualified therapists near most colleges.</p>
<p>My D’s LAC really does not have anyone except for absolute emergencies on their psychiatric/counseling staff. They give to any student asking for “non-emergency” counseling the same three names of local shrinks, and that is it. It is up to the student to contact the therapists, make the appointments, get there and back (all are off campus). And if the student cannot get in or even an answer, all they can do is wait.
It was a big disappointment. (But no surprise given the budget and financial issues these days).
Also, the nurses on staff at the school’s health center have never succeeded in getting a vein in my D. She has to take a cab to the local hospital for any blood tests.
Right now, she is also completely in charge of getting to the neurologist for a follow-up to her CAT-scan after a concussion playing soccer (her trainer took the stitches out).</p>
<p>These kids are getting a real wake-up call after having us parents manage all this for them… We are mostly concerned about the quality of this care, and whether a novice young adult is able to select and evaluate their medical caretakers that well.</p>
<p>So much for having 18 years olds take over all their medical care, but we get to keep paying their health insurance till they are 26!</p>
<p>I am all for gaining independence, and also for helping out financially when needed and possible, but it all starts to seem kind of loony after a while.</p>
<p>We also have a had a very difficult time finding a psychologist for D. We tried calling five different doctors and three of those were not accepting new patients. The other two never returned our calls. We finally got an appt with a therapist only to be told that she needed to refer D to psychologist. This just happened two days ago. Now, we have to start all over. It is quite a process because our ins carrier requires pre-authorization, so it is back to the starting block. Very frustrating.</p>
<p>Maybe there is a shortage because so many parents freak out now if their kid says they want to major in Psychology so they are becoming engineers instead.</p>
<p>LOL, emilybee. We should combine this thread with the one about which majors are the most practical. Clearly there are jobs for psychologists. But getting just a bachelor’s in psychology will continue to be a bad plan.</p>
<p>The GFG, i was trying to keep it light and I figured people in this thread would know that one needs to go to grad school to become a psychologist, PSW, etc.</p>
<p>That being said, most psychologists and PSW I know were psych majors in college.</p>
<p>I don’t have a specific college related story, but I have two extended family members with severe mental/emotional issues who have had horrendously bad experiences getting help. The same thing with calls not answered, insurance issues, and also chronic canceling of appointments, therapists leaving practices, moving, not taking patients, etc. It seems no sooner does one of them find a doc, that there are logistical problems and they’re looking again. And I’m not talking about personality conflicts; i’m talking about inability to get seen. It’s scaring me sometimes; these are two women with major illnesses (bipolar for one, borderline for the other), who need consistency of treatment and cannot get it. I worry that bad things will happen.</p>
<p>We have definitely had problems, both my son on campus, and myself with private practice.</p>
<p>Just getting an initial screening seems to be a large hurdle. If you have a minor physical issue, you can be seen by any number of practitioners pretty much right away. Having an emotional breakdown? You wait weeks, and have to suffer through all kinds of unpleasant symptoms with no relief.</p>
<p>Some of the problem finding competent therapists is because many people expect to use their insurance to cover all of the therapy. Don’t expect this. Some of the best therapists are out-of-network with insurance companies. Most insurance will reimburse a portion of what is paid, but to expect to pay a co-pay like it’s a 15-min. medical visit is unrealistic. Many practices that accept managed care and co-pays are the ones with waiting lists, therapists who leave the practice, etc. You get what you pay for, even in mental health.</p>
<p>ditto maggiedog–always ask if the therapist will provide the billing info for you to do your own billing as out of network. So you must prepay and then get reinbursed.
Quite frankly, the therapist often makes more that way as insurance companies underpay in general. Therapists often do not apply to be on insurance panels due to their low reimbusement. There is a shortage of psychiatrists and NP’s who treat this age group, however.</p>
<p>My relatives don’t expect just a 15 dollar copay. They’d just like the phone answered. The one with private insurance still is better off using one on her plan, even though she knows it will cost. The other is on Medicare and really has to use one on that plan. But if no one answers the phone, or if the docs keep canceling appointments, I’m not sure it matters whatcopay or plan they use.</p>
<p>Actually the jobs are for THERAPISTS, not necessarily psychologists, which in many areas takes more years but get paid at the same rate as LCSW’ and MFT’s. Other issues include how hard it can be to own a business in therapy, even when there seems to be a demand. There can be a good deal of risk involved for the most severly I’ll, moving patients to the next level of care can be difficult ( psychiatric hospitalization), patients sometimes devalue your services and don’t want to pay co-pays , change their mind and miss appointments costing the therapist hundreds of dollars a week, want only evening hours…end rant…</p>
<p>I am sure there are payment and insurance issues that are difficult. But how could a psychologist hope to earn any money at all if they don’t answer the phone and find out what a patient’s circumstances and payment options are?</p>
<p>In my area the appointment difficult to get is with a psychiatrist. Most are not taking new patients and aside from those associated with a clinic do not take insurance.
Also in my area we seem to be oversaturated with therapists. From talking with those in the field it is impossible to maintain a practice with an office if you get by on insurance co-pays. Also we have both a psychology doctorate program and a Masters MFT university in town. This makes for lots of people trying to get their hours in for their state certificate. A family member who was working at a Ca psych hospital was just let go. Her hospital let go of 5 psychologists and MFTs and hired interns who work for $12 an hour. Sad.
Many of the mental health staff at universities in our experience have been interns. Also many universities only allow a small amount of visits before they refer you off campus. If your student needs long term care it might be best to just start off looking for an off campus therapist.
One huge obstacle we found is that transportation can be a huge problem. If a student needs to take a bus both directions plus allow time for the visit it can be difficult to schedule that into the academic day. Plus if you are already depressed it can be hard to motivate yourself to make the effort.
If your student is already seeing someone at home the best place to begin to look for a therapist in the college town is your present therapist. As soon as you know where your child is going begin that search. Have the first appointment set for when you are there at move-in. Also many therapists take time off in the summer so start the search in the spring.
We have been through this and it is an extremely difficult task of finding the right person. It is hard enough when they are at home.</p>
<p>Yes…It IS sad, and part of why psychiatry is what I think of as sort of “dumbed down”…no offense to anyone intended</p>
<p>…and a psychiatrist who takes insurance, is board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry, does therapy, AND takes insurance??? If you find one, don’t abuse her. Yes, I know, this is not about the psychiatrist.</p>
<p>In my area, if you are in the midst of a crisis, the only thing to do is go to the emergency room. From there they may call a crisis counselor. I have been through this with a close family member and the last time they have her ativan and sent her home with me. We have a local mental health board but good luck getting in. The psychiatrist is way over booked and you aren’t even allowed to see him unless you see a counselor first. If you have health insurance you can drive an hour away. There are local colleges in my area and I have always wondered what they do for students in emergency situations considering we have such limited resources…probably send them to the er.</p>
<p>By the way, for any of you considering the College of Wooster, please note the hospital is very close to campus but I and many friends and family members have been treated very poorly by er staff. I am not saying their medical care isn’t good but their bedside manner is a joke. Probably because 75% of the patients use it as a health clinic… sorry have to rant.</p>
<p>Yes, we need more psych. Docs and psychologists and more importantly, we need health ins. co. to pay for therapy.</p>
<p>Another part of the reason it’s hard to find a psychologist is that most agency (hospital) work is now done by psychiatrists (for meds) and social workers (for maintenance.)The psychologists were squeezed out for being too cost prohibitive by insurance companies. Many are now just hanging up shingles and doing private practice. </p>
<p>That being said, if my kids’ school district can have a CSW on staff at the high school every day, plus a school psychologist at each school (6 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high), why can’t colleges have someone on staff too? Does this need in the younger levels somehow miraculously disappear when these kids hit college? One would think that the need would rise when you have these kids in stressful environments where mom and dad aren’t there offering 24/7 support. </p>
<p>^ Wow! That’s pretty amazing. Our school districts have no SW, and share one or two school psychologists between all the schools in the school district!</p>
<p>2 high, 2 middle, maybe 10 elementary, plus a public charter, two “non publics” for emotionally disturbed or LD kids that can’t be maintained in a " less restrictive setting", and a continuation school.</p>
<p>And there are no psychiatrists, or mental health services in our local hospitals outside of Kaiser. But there is “mobile crisis” that travels to the ERs…</p>
<p>But hey, it’s California.</p>
<p>BTW; local elections/ voting in Califonia in a few days! Get out there!</p>
<p>Shrinkrap suggested I post this, that, was posted on the “majors with the highest unemployment rate” over here:
</p>
<p>It is unfortunate if some phonecalls from potential clients are not returned, but sometimes the calls are not clear (poor reception if person calls from a cellphone) or the phone number is hard to hear, or not enough information is left. This may or may not be an issue, but sometimes it is. And agree with maggiedog- most professionals do return calls within 24 hrs. </p>
<p>The reason many psychologists do not have office staff is that they cannot afford them. For those who do accept insurance, as others have mentioned above, insurance carriers pay terribly (often about 40 cents on the dollar), burden the Dr with a lot of paperwork to either get a few visits approved or to handle the billing (it is rarely as simple as just mailing in a bill) and then the provider has to call the insurance company when bills aren’t paid, sit on hold for 45 minutes and then get disconnected. I could go on and on. It is a system that is driving the profession out of business. Many (though not all) MD’s are now limiting their practice to med management, and the patient has to see an MD and a psychologist/social worker/therapist. Coordination of care can be difficult sometimes, between authorizations, allowed visits, etc, and patients who need a higher intensity of care may find it difficult to negotiate this very broken system.</p>
<p>Add to that, as someone mentioned above, some patients who only want to see someone who takes their insurance (which pays less than a plumber or auto mechanic makes an hour), and wants a 7 am or 7 pm appointment, or on a weekend, and wonders why their call isnt returned promptly. Or, when their call is returned, wants to go into detail on the phone about their issues. Some are beginning to offer telemedicine. I am not sure how I feel about that-- there are pros and cons, but thats another discussion.</p>