Health insurance is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who can’t afford to see me. Housing is a mental health issue. I can’t use therapy to help a client whose depression and anxiety come directly from sleeping in the streets. Food insecurity is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who isn’t taking their medication because their pills say “take with food” and they have nothing to eat. Healthcare is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose “depression” is actually a thyroid condition they can’t afford to get treated. Wages are a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose anxiety comes from the fact that they are one missed shift away from not being able to make rent.
Child care is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who works 80 hours per week to afford daycare, and doesn’t have the time or energy left to come see me.
Drug policing is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client who ended up in prison because they got caught self-medicating with illegal substances.
Police brutality is a mental health issue. I can’t help a client whose ‘anxiety’ is a very real and justified fear of ending up as a hashtag.
If you’re going to make a stand for improving mental health, you have to understand that addressing mental health goes way beyond hiring more therapists and talking about mental health on social media. If we’re really serious about tackling this mental health problem as a country, it means rolling up our sleeves and taking down the barriers that prevent people from getting the help they need - even if those people are different than us, lead different lives, and make choices we don’t agree with. We aren’t “fixing” mental health unless we’re fixing it for everybody.
YES YES YES. All of this.
