Mental Health During Times of Transition

Article submitted by Thomas R. Giles, Psy.D. Psychologist and Director Westside Behavioral Care, Inc.
For more information, he can be reached at 303-986-4197 or visit their website: www.WestsideBevioral.com.

Mental health professionals have long been aware that major transition points in families - a loss, leaving home, illness, or death - provide extreme adjustment challenges to all involved. Old family conflicts may emerge, and solid relationships of many years may develop conflict and begin to deteriorate. There is perhaps no greater challenge of this sort than the many transitions that elderly people and their families face on a regular basis.

Compounding the matter is the complexity and difficulty of the current insurance climate. It is difficult to find a Medicare-certified, mental health provider. The Medicare administrative service, Noridian, for example, does not provide a list of credentialed therapists on its website and is unable to provide names of mental health providers over the phone. Once a name of a provider is found, often after much effort, the problem is not necessarily solved: The provider may not be accepting new patients or may be in an inconvenient location. Due to billing complexities in the Medicare system, some providers are reluctant to accept Medicare patients, MENTALM or may not be accepting the insurance of family members who also want care.

Some Denver clinics are beginning to address these problems by recruiting Medicare therapists and placing them in numerous locations throughout the greater Denver area. When patients or their families call a clinic of this sort, they are connected to a knowledgeable receptionist who can provide an appointment with a specialist on the spot along with directions and relevant insurance information. The names, contact information, and clinical expertise of all its clinicians are posted on the clinic's website, and billing issues are handled by specialists retained by the clinic. In this way the vast and unmet needs of the elderly and their families are beginning to be addressed.