Make your voice heard on mental health!
A week or so ago, I posted an article to LinkedIn that got some attention from mental health workers. I argued that if we don’t thoughtfully participate in the shaping of our industry, we will find ourselves the victims of the startups and venture capitalists currently investing in mental health. Or more crudely, “you’re well on your way to becoming an underpaid gig economy worker.”
You can read the original article here.
I then wrote some follow up articles on what to do about it but those kind of got lost in the LinkedIn algorithms and a lot of folks have been asking me where to find those. So here they are, aggregated for your convenience.
First, don’t stumble into anti-trust laws if you’re in private practice. Remember that you can’t collude with other independent businesses to fix prices or supply. Join your local professional association and support them financially! Volunteer.
Report bad/illegal behavior by insurance companies and other third party payers to your state insurance commissioner. Don’t make frivolous complaints… but if there is something legitimately bad going on, make sure you let them know! They can’t enforce regulations if they don’t know who’s violating them.
Make your voice heard by telling legislators what you see and what you need from them in the industry, so they can understand the landscape and vote for laws that support mental health.
Experiment with and invest in creating new models of care that increase access to care, quality of care, affordability, and therapist wellbeing
When you put this all together, it sounds like a lot of work. But one small 5-10 minute task each week can make a big contribution to shaping the industry with your lived experience as a therapist.