Face it, mental health providers are doomed to succeed, which is good, because consumers need mental health professionals to care for them.
“But wait!” you may say: “I saw it in the paper that mental health problems have increased due to job losses, so counselors’ caseloads are expanding, we are doomed to fail!” The picture painted here might lead consumers to believe their counselor could be out of a job tomorrow.
That’s entirely possible, but it’s a contradiction of business forces involved The scenario above is an example of a demand for services being created by disturbing events like recession and job loss (strange, but true). Mental health business is increasing as a result. Maybe a more positive message is in order.
Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) are facing a need to hire some of those folks who received grants to go to school seeking mental health credentialing. This increases treatment quality, delivering more effective help to consumers. In the name of satisfying increasing demand in the business, people are getting hired, and America is becoming more mentally fit.
As a bonus, America’s workers are also becoming equipped mentally to perform better at their jobs, increasing the ability for us to compete in the world market. The feds expect the economy to grow this year. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were filled in April. According to the Washington Post, the outlook for the economy is good.
Let’s consider this as proof that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Mental Health Parity and other legislation is having a positive effect on the economy.
High unemployment led to government funding for people to find new jobs, which in itself created government jobs to provide that help. Medicaid availability increased with eligibility edging up to 130% of the poverty level, so more people can seek mental health services. Parity for mental health is a relatively new law that assures mental health providers will be paid for services on-par with physical healthcare providers. These and a host of other factoids conspired to walk me through a simple, general scenario relating to how ARRA is actually working.
It’s the “trickle up” effect. By injecting the money into the Medicaid system, folks falling below that 130% of poverty line can get the help they need to at least be mentally and physically prepared to work when a job opens for them this year, as projected by the feds. That injects money into the healthcare system now, so folks with jobs or getting jobs in healthcare can keep them.
With workers that are mentally fit, production and quality increase and America competes more effectively on the world market.
Like I said, we’re doomed to succeed.
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