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By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the current moment and hearing about these, and other emotional impacts that people are weathering and wondering what I can offer from a psychological perspective. I’ve had many ideas, but I keep coming back to one: Values. In times of upheaval, maintaining a robust connection to core values is not only personally grounding but socially essential. History shows that in moments of radical change, it is our values—articulated, tested, shared and reimagined—that offer a path forward. They help individuals reclaim a sense of agency and belonging, and they give communities a moral framework through which to assess, challenge, and reconfigure the systems around them.
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By Bart Magee, Ph.D
I recently sat down with Audrey to get to a better understanding of the nuances of her work and to reflect on our shared values. In this interview, Audrey reflects on her professional journey, the challenges of working within public systems, and the enduring value of psychoanalytic thought in schools.
By. Bart Magee, Ph.D. While promising increase access, the teletherapy boom has left us with greater disparities
While higher income groups have taken advantage of the technology, increasing their access to therapy, vulnerable populations – low-income families, non-white communities, older adults, the unemployed and individuals with severe mental illness have not. Rather than closing the access gap, teletherapy has widened it.
How did we get it so wrong and what can be done to reverse the trend?
Another culprit is insurance companies who keep reimbursement for treatment low. Despite a federal mental health parity law enacted over 15 years ago, insurance plans still limit coverage for mental health treatment. Those who do manage to begin therapy often cannot afford to keep going. A 2022 survey of 1,000 adults in therapy from Verywell Mind, found that seventy percent of people either limited their sessions or temporarily suspended treatment to due to cost and almost half were worried about continuing to pay.
This is why I’m proud of Access Institute and the work it does every day to remove the cost burden and make care accessible and affordable to all San Franciscans. Demand for our low-fee services continues to grow. Calls to our intake line jumped by 55% this year and remain at a high volume. Callers are reaching out seeking individual therapy, couples' treatment, psychological assessment and psychiatry services. By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
After a close election, Proposition 1, the bond measure sponsored by Governor Newsom to provide billions for mental health and substance abuse-related housing and treatment, passed. This comes on the heels of the recent establishment “Care Courts”, and changes in conservatorship laws, which will allow, for the first time in decades, compelled treatment for individuals with schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness. There is no question that these hotly debated proposals now being implemented add up to a paradigm shift in the approach to the treatment of severe mental illness. The question is: Will they work as intended? |
