A shortage of psychiatrists across the Fox Valley is causing a growing frustration for those who need help but are forced to wait. Nationally nearly 60 percent of psychiatrists are 55 or older and many are looking to retire soon or reducing their workload. Here in Wisconsin those in the mental health field are feeling the impact too.
The average wait for a new patient to get an appointment with a psychiatrist is shocking.
"The wait times are 6 months to a year to access services for a psychiatrist," says Trish Sarvela the Development Director at Partnership Community Health Center in Menasha.
It's also something though, that those in the mental health field here in northeast Wisconsin would like to change.
"We need to find ways to better address them from a preventative standpoint," adds Sarvela.
“What we’re doing right now is we’re educating our primary care providers on more of the treatment of mild and moderate disease,” says Jean DeKeyser the Vice President of Operations for Thedacare.
Mental health care providers are starting to think outside the box because of the shortage.
"It's something that is a really important public health issue that needs to be a part of primary care," adds Sarvela.
"What we're doing is sharing the knowledge the psychiatrists have with the primary care provider so they can be treated with in the primary care office in most instances," adds DeKeyser.
Those patients with immediate needs would likely not have to wait up to a year for care according to mental health care representatives. And maybe by implementing primary care givers with more tools mental health care facilities could better accommodate those who do need immediate help.
"And that really reserves our psychiatrists for the people who have the most severe and persistent mental illnesses," adds DeKeyser.
It's estimated that nearly half of people with mental illnesses in the state did not receive treatment back in 20-11. But as more health care providers shift to primary care physicians to fill that void, we'll have to watch and see if those numbers go down.
