Kaiser, Don't Deny
Patients need access to timely and consistent mental health services
Therapists struggle to help patients in Kaiser’s flawed system
Published Thursday, October 21, 2021More than 1,400 Kaiser mental health patients have shared stories at kaiserdontdeny.org of care delayed or denied, and the stories keep coming in. Here’s a recent story from a patient had a great experience with Kaiser … until they tried to access mental healthcare.
I was born in a Kaiser Hospital. I’ve been on Kaiser for most of my life, and swapped to Kaiser whenever I had the chance to through my employer. The healthcare I’ve been given I considered the epitome of how a well-run health care system should be, an oasis in our otherwise broken American health care system. That is, until I needed help healing my mind, not my body. I could tell my therapist was trying so hard trying to get in additional appointments that we thought were critical. But their calendar was booked hard, and well, the most they could do was refer me to other programs than get me more appointments I needed. All of this was before the pandemic. I can’t imagine how much worse it is now.
K.
San Francisco Bay Area