Give a Healing Song
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The Burden
When I was still an intern at an outpatient mental health clinic in Columbia MD in 2007, I began seeing a young lady who was severely beaten as a child and had developed multiple problems as an adult. I saw her for a year and she improved greatly, but I knew she had chronic problems and so would need ongoing help. One day my program manager told me my client had to leave because her insurance was switching to Medicare, which we did not carry. This client would have to be referred, she told me. They broke the bad news to her over the phone, and she was devastated.
The program manager told me I could not see her again because it wouldn't be paid for, nevertheless, I secretly called my client and told her we were going to have a proper discharge session, rules or no rules. I met her at a Starbucks, where we developed a care plan for her going forward, including seeing another therapist. I checked on her a few times in the following weeks. She was seeing another therapist at a hospital outpatient clinic, but did not feel satisfied because the therapy was not regular and the therapist seemed overwhelmed by her caseload. Nevertheless she was thankful for my help transitioning her. A year and a half later, I received a terrible email from a relative of this client letting me know my client had taken her life. I will never forget how our system failed this young woman and wonder if I could have done something different.
The Problem
Talk therapy doesn't cut it. In the ten years since I've become a therapist, I've seen many such cases in which people who need specialized mental healthcare simply don't have the funds to get it. It always made me sad to deny services for someone who clearly could use the expert help and I always struggle with the balance between receiving funds for my services and responding to my heart's call to love all people.
Unfortunately, becoming paneled doesn't solve the problem. Due to the low rates offered to counselors, they are forced to pack their schedule. For example, I know a private practice counselor in my area who takes only insurance but who must see fifty clients a week in order to make ends meet. As a result, many counselors who take insurance either do not have the time or the money to pursue specialized treatments that clients desperately need.
As a result of the medical healthcare crisis in our country, we see this problem affecting millions of people with mental health problems. Here are some of the problems people with mental health needs experience:
1) Qualified specialists are not in-network and therefore are not available to all who need it
2) People’s deductible is too high so they can't afford a counselor in-network, much less out-of-network
3) People don’t have the luxury of carrying health insurance at all.
Until our leaders fix this problem, the rest of us need to have the heart to “catch” these human beings who fall through the cracks, these special souls whose lives are precious to us.
The Dream
Somewhere on the road I've traveled (see below under "My Healing Song"), I began to dream. I dreamed of a tree planted in the soil of God's love that was made up of many good people and produced good fruit for all. Those people would use their unique abilities to provide a resting place for people to come and heal.
Every dream has to start somewhere. The start of this dream is to develop - with the help of many talented people - a very large fund that cares for those with the greatest mental healthcare needs. This fund would supplement these people with the funds they cannot afford to pay for specialized care for specific issues and for a set time period. The fund would be monitored by an independent group that would also preside over the applications from people in need. The funds would be paid directly to a very select group of mental health counselors who provide specialized treatment and meet the criteria.
My hope is for this fund to grow to be self-sustaining and pay for the team who administers it. For now, I am aiming for $1000. If we can raise $1000, then I believe we can raise $1,000,000.
The urgency is real. All over, counselors are having to turn away people who do not have funds for specialized care. I know of a mental health patient who was told by her insurance that her counselor's contract will be over at the end of 2019. She has gone through a lot of anguish because she does not believe she is healed yet from her past trauma and continues to need care. Then there is a young, single mother with a young daughter who is working full-time and going to school. She has severe panic attacks and is desperate to have help for her anxiety. There are no trained specialists in our area who take her insurance.
Please, will you add yourself to this live, vibrant, growing tree by contributing? Would you sign up for volunteering your talents when we are ready to begin fundraisers? Would you help by giving $5, $10, $50, $75, $100, or more?
I thank you, and more importantly, I believe hundreds of thousands of people in the future with new songs in their hearts thank you.
*******
My Healing Song
When I started my counseling career, it was out of a conviction that God loves the people of the world so much that his heart constantly breaks for them. As it says in Matthew 9, "When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
When I was age 15, I was confused, anxious, sad, angry, and hopeless. I was also helplessly addicted to the only thing I felt could help me at that time: marijuana. I was taking risks with my life every week. Somehow in the tumult and roar of my insanity, I found my inner voice and cried out to God, pleading with him through tears to spring me out of the teeth of the trap that held me fast.
Two weeks later, I woke up in a hospital bed with my entire face plastered in stitches and bandages. After my head cleared, I was told I had just had a near-death car accident due to driving while high. In the three weeks following that awful car crash, I experienced a complete identity crisis, but the amazing thing is I also felt God reaching for me. For the first time, I experienced a revelation of his love for me, eclipsing my bias that he was a distant God. He brought healers into my life - a wonderful licensed therapist named George and a child psychiatrist named Dr. Steve Powers. Both these men loved God and did their best to help my parents - who were not rich - afford treatment. Together with my parents, these men helped me develop the resilience to overcome my addiction to marijuana, fight my ADHD, push past my anxiety, and speak back to my depressive thoughts, plotting a hopeful path into the future.
Of course, there's so much more to the story, but that will have to wait for another time and another day. Until then, I wish you the best and I hope and pray you will catch my vision, a vision I believe is heaven-sent.
When I was still an intern at an outpatient mental health clinic in Columbia MD in 2007, I began seeing a young lady who was severely beaten as a child and had developed multiple problems as an adult. I saw her for a year and she improved greatly, but I knew she had chronic problems and so would need ongoing help. One day my program manager told me my client had to leave because her insurance was switching to Medicare, which we did not carry. This client would have to be referred, she told me. They broke the bad news to her over the phone, and she was devastated.
The program manager told me I could not see her again because it wouldn't be paid for, nevertheless, I secretly called my client and told her we were going to have a proper discharge session, rules or no rules. I met her at a Starbucks, where we developed a care plan for her going forward, including seeing another therapist. I checked on her a few times in the following weeks. She was seeing another therapist at a hospital outpatient clinic, but did not feel satisfied because the therapy was not regular and the therapist seemed overwhelmed by her caseload. Nevertheless she was thankful for my help transitioning her. A year and a half later, I received a terrible email from a relative of this client letting me know my client had taken her life. I will never forget how our system failed this young woman and wonder if I could have done something different.
The Problem
Talk therapy doesn't cut it. In the ten years since I've become a therapist, I've seen many such cases in which people who need specialized mental healthcare simply don't have the funds to get it. It always made me sad to deny services for someone who clearly could use the expert help and I always struggle with the balance between receiving funds for my services and responding to my heart's call to love all people.
Unfortunately, becoming paneled doesn't solve the problem. Due to the low rates offered to counselors, they are forced to pack their schedule. For example, I know a private practice counselor in my area who takes only insurance but who must see fifty clients a week in order to make ends meet. As a result, many counselors who take insurance either do not have the time or the money to pursue specialized treatments that clients desperately need.
As a result of the medical healthcare crisis in our country, we see this problem affecting millions of people with mental health problems. Here are some of the problems people with mental health needs experience:
1) Qualified specialists are not in-network and therefore are not available to all who need it
2) People’s deductible is too high so they can't afford a counselor in-network, much less out-of-network
3) People don’t have the luxury of carrying health insurance at all.
Until our leaders fix this problem, the rest of us need to have the heart to “catch” these human beings who fall through the cracks, these special souls whose lives are precious to us.
The Dream
Somewhere on the road I've traveled (see below under "My Healing Song"), I began to dream. I dreamed of a tree planted in the soil of God's love that was made up of many good people and produced good fruit for all. Those people would use their unique abilities to provide a resting place for people to come and heal.
Every dream has to start somewhere. The start of this dream is to develop - with the help of many talented people - a very large fund that cares for those with the greatest mental healthcare needs. This fund would supplement these people with the funds they cannot afford to pay for specialized care for specific issues and for a set time period. The fund would be monitored by an independent group that would also preside over the applications from people in need. The funds would be paid directly to a very select group of mental health counselors who provide specialized treatment and meet the criteria.
My hope is for this fund to grow to be self-sustaining and pay for the team who administers it. For now, I am aiming for $1000. If we can raise $1000, then I believe we can raise $1,000,000.
The urgency is real. All over, counselors are having to turn away people who do not have funds for specialized care. I know of a mental health patient who was told by her insurance that her counselor's contract will be over at the end of 2019. She has gone through a lot of anguish because she does not believe she is healed yet from her past trauma and continues to need care. Then there is a young, single mother with a young daughter who is working full-time and going to school. She has severe panic attacks and is desperate to have help for her anxiety. There are no trained specialists in our area who take her insurance.
Please, will you add yourself to this live, vibrant, growing tree by contributing? Would you sign up for volunteering your talents when we are ready to begin fundraisers? Would you help by giving $5, $10, $50, $75, $100, or more?
I thank you, and more importantly, I believe hundreds of thousands of people in the future with new songs in their hearts thank you.
*******
My Healing Song
When I started my counseling career, it was out of a conviction that God loves the people of the world so much that his heart constantly breaks for them. As it says in Matthew 9, "When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
When I was age 15, I was confused, anxious, sad, angry, and hopeless. I was also helplessly addicted to the only thing I felt could help me at that time: marijuana. I was taking risks with my life every week. Somehow in the tumult and roar of my insanity, I found my inner voice and cried out to God, pleading with him through tears to spring me out of the teeth of the trap that held me fast.
Two weeks later, I woke up in a hospital bed with my entire face plastered in stitches and bandages. After my head cleared, I was told I had just had a near-death car accident due to driving while high. In the three weeks following that awful car crash, I experienced a complete identity crisis, but the amazing thing is I also felt God reaching for me. For the first time, I experienced a revelation of his love for me, eclipsing my bias that he was a distant God. He brought healers into my life - a wonderful licensed therapist named George and a child psychiatrist named Dr. Steve Powers. Both these men loved God and did their best to help my parents - who were not rich - afford treatment. Together with my parents, these men helped me develop the resilience to overcome my addiction to marijuana, fight my ADHD, push past my anxiety, and speak back to my depressive thoughts, plotting a hopeful path into the future.
Of course, there's so much more to the story, but that will have to wait for another time and another day. Until then, I wish you the best and I hope and pray you will catch my vision, a vision I believe is heaven-sent.
Organizer
Danny Miller
Organizer
Ellicott City, MD
