Mental Health Bill
April 1, 2008
I’m one of the pediatric residents at Mass General working on the mental health bill currently winding its way through the MA legislature. This bill aims to really highlight and hopefully help fix a key problem in our society - the mental health of our young.
Recently it seems that our pediatric medical wards have been filled with young children and teenagers awaiting placement in a mental health facility. It fills hospital beds needed by other patients and more importantly delays their own treatment since all we essentially do is babysit them after they’ve been medically cleared.
This bill will hopefully streamline services, increase insurance coverage, and really make someone accountable for making mental health services available for our young. I’m very excited that we’re supporting it and hope that it will pass this year. What do you guys think?
Thanks! Robin
Entry Filed under: Advocacy, Boston, MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Massachusetts, health care, healthcare, kids' health, medical education, pediatrics, physician blog, residency. Tags: adolescents, Advocacy, child, children, doctor, hospital, insurance coverage, kids, legislation, legislature, ma, mass, Massachusetts, mental health, mental health facility, pediatric, pediatrician, pediatrics, physician, psychiatry, residents, services, society, State House, statehouse, teenager, teenagers, treatment, young.
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Shannon Scott-Vernaglia, MD Associate Residency Director | April 3, 2008 at 5:38 am
Mental health coverage for the young is critically important. I am faced with patients regularly who struggle to get the healthcare they need. For those with insurance, the waits are tremendous and for those without (or with coverage that limits mental health benefits) they often go without or their parents take on significant financial risks to get them care.
The MCPAP-Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project (http://mcpap.typepad.com/) has offered some much needed relief but it is not enough. We must get more coverage for childhood mental health and increase reimbursement in order to encourage more mental health providers to train to take care of children.