The national health service - does it cover mental health?

[treestar]

Maybe a dumb question, but I have a U.S. insurance policy that does not cover it and wondered if this attitude prevails in other countries.

If you need a psychiatrist, or meds for depression, is that covered, or covered in some lesser fashion than physical illness?

[Esra Star]

1. The short answer is yes....but....

The coverage is not blanket. There are always debates going on.

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/hr_disab/medicare/medicare.html

[treestar]

2. Thank you. 50 times per year sounds OK for most people anyway.

If I read that right you'd have to need more than that before the restriction came up, and if based on the criteria like sexual abuse, etc., could have as many as 160 per year, and that's more than twice per week.

[foreigncorrespondent]

3. And...

...if you are something like a disability support pension for mental illness (bipolar, etc) you get all the help you can imagine, at no cost to you.

My brother in laws cousin is bipolar, and has been on a DSP for years now, sadly she is a lost cause though. But from what I understand the DSP has helped a lot of people with mental illness maintain a normal life.

In Australia, Pensioners, Unemployed people, and people who fall under a certain income can get a healthcare card from Centrelink (our social security) and with a healthcare card, you receive free medical coverage. Abotu the only thing it doesn't cover is dentistry, but you can just head to the dental hospital and get free or cheap dental treatment anyway.

[Matilda]

4. Dental cover leaves a lot to be desired.

Under the Howard Government, the waiting list for the dental hospital in Sydney grew to years - and if you have a
rotting tooth, it won't remain static while you wait in the queue. There were some real horror stories, not least
involving children.

And I remember that Gough Whitlam started a free dental scheme for all schoolchildren - we used it when our children
were small. It covered only checkups and cleaning and simple fillings if needed; for anything more complicated, you
had to go to your own dentist. Our children never needed fillings, but it was a great help to us when they were
young to have their teeth checked and cleaned regularly at no cost.

The system was abolished by John Howard. Of course.

Rudd has proposals for his "dentacare" scheme on the table, but meanwhile, if you can't pay, your teeth can just rot.

[foreigncorrespondent]

5. Tell me about it!

I remember getting my teeth checked and cleaned as a kid and it cost mum nothing for it to happen.

Now? Ha! My partner and her two children are both suffering at the moment with teeth problems and we simply cannot afford to go to the local dentist here (we live in country Victoria about 4 hours drive from Melbourne.)

Me? I need a check up and probably a little work done as well, but thankfully I don't have to pop painkillers or taste the yucky toothache drops.

Rudd needs to do something and fast, I remember hearing of horror stories from here in Vic which included death because of the infection in peoples mouths were that bad from the rotting teeth.

[Matilda]

6. I feel particularly strongly about the abolition of the school dental service,

because if children develop serious problems with their first teeth, it can also affect the second teeth before
they've even come through, and that's tragic.

Free dental care for children was one of Whitlam's best initiatives, and I had hoped that a new Labour government
would reinstate it, but it doesn't seem to have crossed Rudd's mind.

[treestar]

8. I was hearing dental was an issue in UK systems too

But at least if you have med covered, going private with the dental might be less of a burden?

[Djinn]

7. Yes and No

Psychiatry is covered by Medicare and has been for a long time but psychology has only recently been added. However depending on the individual Dr/Psychologist you will likely have to pay a gap.

If you suffer from depression you will most likely be treated by your GP which is also covered by Medicare.

Most common psych meds are covered by our subsidised pharma scheme (PBS) however some are not.

Most people who aren't dead broke and are suffering from depression will see a private psych because the waiting lists for public mental health treatment is very long and tends to be geared to the acute end of the scale.

Personality Disorders are in a bit of a limbo, generally not covered by public mental health services unless there's a dual diagnosis.

Mental Health is not considered a priority by state and federal governments for the same reasons looking after the disabled and aged isn't, until a sizable enough group of people in marginal electorates are effected by it, politicians will continue to sweep it under the rug.

People who are very unwell have little option but rely on the public sector because the private sector views anything more complex than bourgeois housewives depressed because their husbands are having affairs as belonging in the too hard basket.

There is a lot of misinformation about MH that the govt happily goes along with. The view that most Victorian have of CAT teams (Crisis Assesment & Treatment) is highly inaccurate. They are (mostly) not 24/7 and are handling caseloads so high that more often than not a police response will be what is forthcoming not a team of psych professionals.

I spend about half of my working life in psychiatric facilities and I'm still trying to work out how anyone gets better in them.