Strike by Kaiser employees highlights the issues of access and wait times in mental health treatment facilities.

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Employees at Kaiser medical facilities in the San Francisco area walked off their jobs last month in a protest over wait times for patients. Getty Images

For patients seeking mental health services in the United States, wait times appear to be increasing — and there isn’t an easy solution in sight.

上个月的罢工Kaiser Permanente的心理健康工作者在旧金山地区，全国各地的问题。

他们罢工的原因是抗议寻求心理健康服务的人们的等待时间。

据那些惊人的人说，有些人不得不等待四到六个星期才能看到心理健康专业人员。

克莱门特·E·帕帕兹（Clement E. Papazian）是奥克兰（Kaiser Oakland）精神病学部门的有执照的社会工作者，他参与了罢工。

“The strike that we just had piggybacks on five years’ worth of struggle that we’ve had with Kaiser just in getting them to acknowledge this problem,” he told Healthline.

These aren’t the first strikes to be held there. A类似的发生在2015年，Kaiser随后同意改善其患者治疗率。

凯撒也是2013年罚款400万美元by the state for inadequate patient mental health access.

However, improvements have been made.

According toa statement released by Kaiser last month,卫生系统将员工的治疗师数量增加了30％，仅将500名新的治疗师带到加利福尼亚 - 并投资了1.75亿美元，以改善心理健康基础设施和访问。

但是批评者说，对于一家希望成为“全国最佳心理健康和成瘾计划”的公司，这些改善可能会跌入不足。

“They’ll say, well we have hired 500 therapists since that agreement. Which is true. But the demand [for therapists] far, far exceeds what they’ve on-boarded and we just don’t see that a company that’s got $28 billion in reserve can’t solve this problem if there’s serious intent,” said Papazian.

The problem of access, and specifically wait times, isn’t unique to Kaiser.

一项研究conducted by the National Council for Behavioral Health, a mental health and addiction advocacy group, and the Cohen Veterans Network stated that 96 million Americans had to wait longer than one week for mental health treatments.

That can just be the tip of the iceberg.

According to a story in October in theChicago Tribune, some clinics can leave patients waiting for anywhere between three weeks and a year to see psychiatrists or specialists.

“I think there are a few issues, but certainly there is more demand than supply right now,” Linda Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of the National Council for Behavioral Health, told Healthline.

“你知道,我们非常努力地工作,希望非常中央h for people to feel comfortable talking about emotional problems and addiction. I think we’ve been successful with that, right? So everybody’s talking and now people are looking for treatment and there are not enough clinicians that are available,” she said.

尽管围绕心理健康的污名有所下降，并且越来越多的美国人开始寻求治疗，但卫生系统和医院的治疗师的增加并没有可比。

In particular, Rosenberg says, millennials and younger age groups are more open to discussing and seeking mental health treatment. Veterans are also seeking out mental health professionals in growing numbers.

“You have these populations that we didn’t plan for and now what do we do about it?” said Rosenberg.

除其他要求外，Kaiser的醒目员工要求雇用更多的精神卫生工作者。他们说，提高治疗师和患者之间的比率与更好的访问，更好的护理质量以及 改善了等待时间 .

However, mental health workers don’t just appear out of thin air to whisk away anxieties. They require schooling and training and paychecks.

罗森伯格说：“我认为还不够，而且由于医学界的薪水较低，因此没有吸引大量的数字。”“我认为，随着他们开始付出更多，我们将吸引更多的人进入该领域。但这将需要时间，所以我们现在有这个滞后。利率还没有上涨，他们需要。”

In the meantime, for individuals seeking mental healthcare that are facing long wait times, there are a few things you can do:

  • 在危机中寻求帮助。如果您感到自杀或严重困扰，那就预防自杀生命线can be reachedthrough chat在线或1-800-273-8255。
  • Educate yourself and find resources.Find relevant resources and educate yourself about what options are available within and outside of the healthcare system, including“mental health first aid”courses.
  • 寻找通过网络提供的治疗选择。Telepsychiatry，使用Skype或FaceTime之类的通信软件是一种在您自己舒适的家中与心理健康专家交谈的便捷方式。
  • 尝试解决医疗系统。“Put pressure on insurance companies to pay for it, even if the provider is out of network… be assertive,” said Rosenberg.