[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

I don't know that this is the right community since it's impossible to have a casual conversation on the subject, and you seem to be more venting than wanting to talk about the subject.

That being said, you're right.

Mental healthcare access is horrible in so many places that it might as well not be there at all. Then you run into places where they try, but budgeting isn't there for public, low income patients, so you end up with over worked, under paid providers struggling to keep up with patients that need way more help, more often, than they can provide.

Even when you have insurance that covers it, wait lists exist and are absurdly long, particularly among those that are at the highest risk. You don't even want to see how long some pediatric mental health providers are backed up. It can take a year or more just to get the first appointment so they can get started, not even for actual therapy.

And that's assuming your insurance is accepted at a given provider.

That doesn't mean that it isn't the best thing to do, it usually is. But if someone is saying "just get therapy", they're clueless. Even people in crisis, they may not get the help they actually need, so suggesting that someone only has to up and get therapy and problem solved is malarkey.

People can be suicidal, reach an ER, get held, go through all the bullshit that entails, and never have a proper therapist seen. There are times when someone in crisis can not only not get help, but end up worse off.

And, like you said, that's just the US. There are countries where therapists simply don't exist. There's others where accessing therapy is even harder.

Unfortunately, it is usually still the only useful suggestion someone can make. I tend to be careful about how I recommend someone seek a provider because if you do that without couching it with acknowledging that it isn't always a possibility, you might as well just tell someone to git gud.