Mental health has become a rising trend of discussion as more and more people are diagnosed with them. Currently, about 18% of the American population suffers from anxiety disorders, the most common type of mental health disorder out of over 200 classified forms of mental illness. Mental health used to be a taboo, but now people are breaking this stigma to help those suffering receive treatment and prevent shame and discrimination. While it is important to address their existence and commonality, it is equally (if not, more) crucial to discuss the issue of insufficient mental healthcare in emergency rooms, where those who are suffering go to receive immediate attention but oftentimes don’t receive enough.
A large amount of people who have mental disorders face difficulties in emergency rooms. In particular, the elderly, teenage, and even LGBTQIA population have a hard time receiving mental healthcare there. Try stepping in the shoes of someone with a mental health disorder. Let’s say you start contemplating suicide as an effect of your illness. You have the option to call the suicide hotline or 911 and say you’re planning to commit suicide, after which you’ll be rushed to the emergency room. If you aren’t of age, you have to have a parent sign consent for you to receive help there. But once you get inside the emergency room, you realize that you may not exactly be put first. If you aren’t violently bleeding or close to death, then you’re situation is not immediate. You will be placed in a watch room, but even there you can be subject to long periods of waiting before your situation is catered to. According to data compiled by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, approximately 23% of patients with mental health disorders stayed in emergency care for over six hours, and about 1.3% of them stayed for over 24 hours.
In addition to long waiting periods, many people don’t know how to approach a situation involving someone with a mental health disorder, and this is evident in the way an unfortunately large amount of emergency rooms fail to treat them with the right care and consideration. Consider a real-life example. My associate Libby Summerall’s sister, who is transgender, faced a similarily negative experience in the ER. During her stay, it was apparent that the hospital staff didn’t know whether to place her sister with males or females, causing even more distress.
Why is this an issue? Besides unawareness about proper mental health care and consideration, one of the largest factors that gets in the way is lack of insurance. Medical treatment comes with a huge price tag and those without health insurance are not always treated as the emergency room’s first priority because of this. It leaves everyone in a rough situation since, at the end of the day, health care is business. That shouldn’t be the case, but it’s the harsh reality nowadays – money before service. With inadequate education or treatment, this gap between mental healthcare and emergency rooms will only expand. That’s why it’s important to educate ourselves and the people around us about mental health disorders, how to treat them, and how to handle situations involving those who are suffering from them.
For more information about the statistics mentioned in this work, please visit the websites below:
https://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/17/498270772/how-gaps-i…
For mental health support and resources and to support the movement to end the stigma, please visit: http://www.nami.org/#