Finding Mental Health Help in the US

If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, do not hesitate to contact 911 or go to an emergency room. I also have a page listing many crisis lines with many free 24/7 support lines.

It can be really difficult in the US to get proper access to mental health care. Hopefully this page will help someone to find what they need.

Ask your insurance:

If you have insurance in the US it probably covers mental health coverage as the Affordable Healthcare Act states that it is one of the 10 essential healthcare benefits. Contact your insurance or look on their website to find out the coverage specifications and get a list of who is in-network. Here is a website with some great questions you might want to ask your insurance.

If you don’t have insurance:

Finding a therapist

Try calling 211 in the US. They maybe able to provide a list of sliding-scale therapists.

Look into community or federally-funded therapists. You might try doing an online search for the name of your city or county and ‘mental health services.’ You may also want to do a search for your county and ‘department of behavioral health.’

You can try calling local therapist’s offices and asking if they have sliding scales available. I prefer to use an online search first, but there is also a list at Psychology Today. Some therapists may list that the specifically do sliding-scale, but even if they don’t it might be a great way to find people that look like might be a good match for you.

Try calling your local college or university if they have mental health practitioner degrees and ask them if they have a program that people can have sessions with practitioners-in-training. These may not be for everyone. Although not yet fully qualified, they do work with someone else and don’t practice completely unsupervised.

Locally, we have agencies called “Aging and Disability Centers” that often provide useful information for this if you can’t find it elsewhere. You may try an online search finding if you have one.

Teletherapy might be another option. I’ve been hearing about an increasing number of services that allow 24/7 scheduling of therapists available via the internet. Realize that these kind of services may not be as highly regulated so make sure you are working with a licensed therapist. The National Institute of Mental Health has a good article on deciding if a teletherapy service is right for you.

Theo.org has a search to find therapists.

Group Therapy or a support group isn’t the same as an individual therapist, but it can be a place to start when having difficulties finding an affordable therapist.

Using Herbs for Mental Health

Sometimes therapy isn’t enough. There are a lot of great herbs that are available to try to help with minor mental health issues. Please be aware that herbs may not be prescription, but they are still powerful and can have dangerous interactions so do your research! This is a great site with lots of info about using herbs in various ways for mental health: mental health meds.

If you need a prescription, do not be ashamed, and don’t hesitate! Your spiritual abilities won’t all disappear if you take a prescription. It can be a rough road finding the right one, so you have to be persistent in trying to find the right ones. Just remember that finding the right one might not fix all you’re problems, but it can help with finding a greater quality of life with more joy and peace.