Navigating The World Of Mental Healthcare

The world of hospitals, therapists, psychiatrists, and addiction treatment does a great job marketing its services to families ... but makes little or no effort to help them understand it, shop for it, or identify providers who deliver real outcomes. Then, there is the financial cost of treatment and aftercare.  Most families want to make investments in quality treatment that (hopefully) will deliver sustained recovery - but cannot judge who or where is the best place to invest precious family treasure.  Why? because this mental healthcare world does not measure quality outcomes.  When I had my small care management practice, at least we measured how many days our clients stayed out of the hospital, or stayed employment, or lived independently.  Yet the largest, or sexiest, or most expensive private facilities (or even therapy practices) cannot answer the question “what are your outcomes?”

No other medical field is such a mystery to consumers, can charge so much, but yet make the fewest promises about real stability or change. It’s as if the world of mental healthcare has settled into an identity of a body shop for repairs and maintenance instead of a place that can deliver hope and change.   And this is due in no small part to the lack of collaboration or cooperation with its patients’ true recovery stakeholders, historians, and caregivers- the parent, spouse, or family back at home.