Today Hillary Clinton announced her agenda for mental health treatment in the United States. She made a promise to Americans that by the end of her term, there will be no distinct difference between mental and physical health care in access, cost or quality. Good news for such mental sufferers.
Hospitals dedicated to mental health care and treatment are an excellent option except they can only be afforded by wealthy people or carriers of the most expensive insurance plans. These centers are out of reach of the majority of ill people or their families. Medicare limits such care to 120 days in a person's lifetime and will not pay for any more.
Anyone familiar to mental problems from a young age forward knows not much can be accomplished in this time limitation. They can still be treated by a regular hospital with a mental ward except they are closing all the time and shifting patients to overcrowded state facilities. State hospitals are now limiting time. I have heard 30 days is maximum time per commitment in a state hospital.
Psychiatrists have become more or less shills for the drug industry simply passing out the latest formulas for what the doctor decides is his diagnosis. There is a desperate need for more trained people in the field of mental health. Much more is needed than finding out what best relieves the most obvious symptoms.
Treatment by pills is simply inadequate. It has to be comprehensive enough to include addiction, living conditions, homelessness and more. There has to be created a class beyond Psychiatrist, a super doctor group proficient in all these named areas and others to be discovered. An undertaking beyond my ability to conceive.
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