Why is mental health “different” health?

By Adrienne Jones 

Comic courtesy of Beatrice the Biologist.

[This post and the above cartoon are presented as part of our “I Am Mental Illness” series.]

My 17 year old daughter, Abbie, broke her leg the other day; a bad break in her femur. She was in terrible pain, begging me to make it stop, to help her feel better, so I took her to the emergency room. We went there, and we waited for 6 hours, and finally a Bone Health Specialist came and told us that we should go home and make an appointment to see an orthopedist.

“I can’t take her home like this!” I said. “She’s in too much pain, and she can’t walk! Can she at least have some medicine for the pain?”

The Bone Health Specialist was aghast. “A doctor can’t prescribe medicine without seeing the patient. That would be unethical!”

I brought Abbie home and made her as comfortable as I could before I got on the phone. I called every orthopedist whose number I could find. Many of them didn’t return my calls, and of those that did, more than half told me that they were not accepting new patients, and the few who I spoke to who were accepting new patients made appointments 4-6 weeks in the future or put her on waiting lists that were months long.

* * *

Oh, wait, no, sorry. I got a little confused for a second there. Actually, I took Abbie to the ER for an asthma attack. She was terrified, begging me to help her breathe, so I took her in hopes of getting her some relief and making sure she didn’t die. We went there, and we waited for 6 hours, and finally a Breathing Specialist came and told us we should go home and make an appointment to see a pulmonologist.

“I can’t take her home like this!” I said. “She can barely breathe, and she could die! Can she at least have a nebulizer treatment?”

The Breathing the Air Specialist was aghast. “A doctor can’t prescribe medicine without seeing the patient. That would be unethical!”

I brought Abbie home and gave her every kind of over-the-counter medicine I could think of to help her breathe better before I got on the phone……

* * *

Oops, no, wait, it was diabetic shock, and after we waited we saw a Blood Sugar and Insulin Specialist who told us to go home and make an appointment with an endocrinologist……

* * *

Gosh, sorry, I just don’t know where my head is. I took her to the ER because she was in a car accident and she was unconscious from head trauma, and after we waited we saw a Consciousness Restoration Specialist who told us to go home and make an appointment with a trauma surgeon……

* * *

Or wait, no, I did take my daughter to the ER, and we did wait for hours, but what was really wrong was depression. She felt suicidal. I had already called more than 30 psychiatrists by the time we went, and had already discovered that I could not get her an appointment in a reasonable amount of time. 6 weeks, 2 months, 3 months, we’ll add you to the waiting list…and in the meantime my daughter begged, “Please, Mom, can’t you make it stop? I just want it to stop!”

It is always awful to witness one’s own child suffering. From a baby’s first cold, there are few things in life that feel worse. Part of the way I endured excruciating pain after a surgery in 2007 (a stitch had slipped and I was bleeding internally) was to chant over and over to myself, better me than one of my kids, better me than one of my kids. But when there is treatment for what ails that child; when we know exactly what would bring some relief but we cannot deliver it despite our best and biggest efforts, there is an extraordinary anger that could change the path the moon travels in the sky if only I could figure out where to point it.

I took Abbie to Kaseman Presbyterian in Albuquerque because it is one of two hospitals in the city that has a psychiatric emergency department. I took her to the ER because, as I have been busy trying to get her an appointment with a psychiatrist, she has gotten more depressed. When left untreated, illnesses more serious than common viruses have a tendency to get worse. Untreated diabetes causes organ damage (or death); untreated asthma causes scarring in the lungs (or death); untreated depression causes more acute depression (or death).

We waited some 6 hours at the ER and finally we saw a Behavioral Health Specialist (BHS). She interviewed Abbie, and then she spoke to me. “She’s clearly very depressed,” said the BHS, “but she doesn’t meet the criteria for admission. She has some suicidal ideas, and she knows what she would do if she decided to end her life, but she hasn’t definitely decided to do it. Criteria for admission is an immediate suicide plan or extreme psychosis. You should take her home and make an appointment with a psychiatrist.”

“Won’t she see a psychiatrist today?” I asked.

“No, there are no psychiatrists in the emergency department.”

There are no psychiatrists in the psychiatric emergency department.

There are NO psychiatrists in the PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.

“I can’t take her home without a prescription or an appointment or something,” I said.

The BHS looked horrified. “She can’t have a prescription. No doctor will write a prescription without seeing the patient. That would be unethical!”

Unethical.

Let’s talk about ethics.

Let’s talk about the ethics of insurance companies that reimburse so little for mental health treatment that hospitals have no incentive to keep their psychiatric units open.

Let’s talk about the ethics of a mental health funding system that pays psychiatrists less than most other doctors so medical students enter other specialties in hopes of paying off their student loans before they reach retirement age.

Let’s talk about the ethics of having a psychiatric emergency room with no psychiatrists in it, ever.

Let’s talk about the ethics of naming psychiatric care “behavioral health care,” as if the issues were in one’s actions instead of in one’s brain.

What about my ethics? How ethical is it for me, as a parent, not to get my daughter the medical care she needs? It doesn’t feel quite ethical to go to sleep at night, posing as it does the risk that she may hurt herself when I am unavailable to supervise. No, that doesn’t feel ethically sound at all.

When Abbie dislocated her knee at school 18 months ago, an ambulance transported her from there to the ER. At the ER, they put her knee in place, put a brace on her, gave her a dose of pain medicine and a prescription for pain medicine to take at home, and we walked out with a follow-up appointment with an orthopedist for the very next day.

There is no equivalent care for a dislocated mind. There is no method to deliver care immediately to a person who is suffering deeply but who has not quite gotten to the place where she seals the garage, or swallows the pills, or puts a blade to a vital artery.

By all means, let’s talk about ethics. Let’s talk about the ethics of a mental health care system that meets the needs of such a small minority of suffering people that suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens and young adults in the US, in spite of the fact that most people with mental illness can be successfully treated with appropriate care, and 90% of people who complete suicide have a diagnosable mental illness at the time of their deaths.

I sure am glad the doctor who “treated” my daughter the other night got to protect his ethics. Now how about we get busy protecting people’s lives? How about we talk about systemic ethics? How about we talk about treating suffering that originates in the brain the same way we treat suffering that originates in the heart, the liver, and the bones?

How about someone out there with a prescription pad helps me keep my daughter alive? How about we all start treating this like the emergency that it is?

My daughter will get the treatment she needs. I found someone to see her in two weeks (still an outrageous amount of time, but we’ll manage), and in the meantime we’ll do what we have to do to keep her safe, somehow.

The same cannot be said of the nearly 40,000 Americans who will end their own lives this year.

There are no disposable people, but we sure as hell act as if there are.

[Editor’s note: Adrienne’s post originally appeared at her blog, No Points for Style. You can read about Adrienne’s Diet Coke problem, giving birth in her back yard, and other musings here.]