Hi all,
I notice that a lot of people posting are in the US, and know that you do not have a national health service. So I’m curious, is there no support at all for people who are having mental health problems unless they have private medical insurance? Are there community services available?
3 comments
Homeless Army veteran here, the VA takes care of me. They do things for me and give me stuff that I’d have no idea to ask for.
Yes (there’s no support for most Americans) there was a story on 60 Minutes five weeks ago showing that we have more people with mental health problems in prisons here than in hospitals. They had prison wardens explain that while roughly 33% of the convicted inmates were diagnosed with at least one mental disorder, their prisons held many people without charge because the individuals had nowhere else to go.
Health care costs in general are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy here, as it has been for quite some time. We’ll need to care for the retiring Baby Boomers soon. It’s a mess deeper and more vast than our Grand Canyon. I don’t know anyone who’s not perplexed by the scale and severity of problems in our for-profit health care system.
My family is really poor so I get free heath insurance but if I were to choose to put myself in a hospital my insurance will not cover it. I would have to be forced to go. It’s sad though not everyone is poor enough to have free health insurance but still can’t afford it. The world is cold. If you can’t pay at a hospital and it’s not life or death they really do nothing for you.
it seems to me that health care is primarily for more physical diseases.
everyone’s sorry for the kid with cancer but no one gives a fuck about the depressed and suicidal
but then again, what do i know?