Any mental health professionals on letsrun?

Mental health is a pseudoscience and its practitioners are produce nothing of value. Fortunately, mental health is one of the professions that will be utterly decimated by the collapse of the US economy. No more easy money from the government for those useless f***s. The local mental hospital was recently shut down due to state budget cuts - good riddance.

I would say if you are able to work with some client's on the side in private practice it could be a good decision. I know some who have gone into managed care, and miss the clinical one on one interaction with clients.

I work with denials, determining medical necessity, along with auditing treatment plans, and love it. I do evaluations on the side for CPS, which allows me to keep a little clinical work. The pay is better, but it takes a bit of time to get used to how things work and different definitions. People who use insurance or medicaid to cover their services, seem to believe that they should get what they want, not what service is best suited for them. So you have to get into a different mind frame when reviewing charts, and making decisions. So for example someone comes in and wants benzo's, and if their is no medical necessity for it, you have to tell them that along with offering a different service (like counseling, or skills training).

I'd say go for it, and you have your master's and a few years experience to fall back on in case it is not your thing. Good luck!

recycled plastic wrote:

Mental health is a pseudoscience and its practitioners are produce nothing of value. Fortunately, mental health is one of the professions that will be utterly decimated by the collapse of the US economy. No more easy money from the government for those useless f***s. The local mental hospital was recently shut down due to state budget cuts - good riddance.

the arizona shooting shows that mental hospitals are necessary, so that people like the arizona shooter, the virginia tech shooter etc. can get the treatment and help they need to be rehabilitated and become happy and productive members of society.

without mental hospitals people like the arizona shooter would be sent to jail for life being bored or given the death penalty. either way his life would be over and he would not be able to be rehabilitated and become a productive and tax paying member of society.

douglas burke wrote:

the arizona shooting shows that mental hospitals are necessary, so that people like the arizona shooter, the virginia tech shooter etc. can get the treatment and help they need to be rehabilitated and become happy and productive members of society.

without mental hospitals people like the arizona shooter would be sent to jail for life being bored or given the death penalty. either way his life would be over and he would not be able to be rehabilitated and become a productive and tax paying member of society.

ROFL @ you liberal dumbshits. People like the Arizona and Virginia Tech shooters cannot be rehabilitated and will never be happy or productive members of society. Their problems are ideological, not chemical, and no amount of Thorazine or Depakote will change the way they think. The most that drug treatment will do is potentiate a withdrawl reaction and cause them to snap when they decide to stop taking the worthless pills. And don't kid yourself into thinking that "talk therapy" will change them, either. You can't force people to think rationally, and most counselors don't even think rationally themselves. You deal with an insane, homicidal human the same way you deal with a mad dog with rabies - by killing him.

Wow!

I'm sorry that therapy didn't work for you as a kid. Not everyone is treatable.

I'm guessing you haven't been exposed to anyone with serious mental illness. If you had a relative with paranoid schizophrenia & were able to see the difference in his quality of life while on meds & while off meds you might appreciate the importance of modern psychiatry in correcting what is clearly a chemical imbalance.

Likewise, if you have ever seen some with severe bipolar & psychosis in a manic episode talking to God & running out in traffic (happened today) vs. stable on meds, I would like for you to tell me this is a pseudoscience.

Finally, seeing someone enter into an ER suicidally depressed vs. a month later actually smiling....that is this crock-of-shit mental health system at work that you are hoping to see disseminated.

Again, sorry therapy didn't work for you as a kid.

I'm just sayin' wrote:

I'm guessing you haven't been exposed to anyone with serious mental illness. If you had a relative with paranoid schizophrenia & were able to see the difference in his quality of life while on meds & while off meds you might appreciate the importance of modern psychiatry in correcting what is clearly a chemical imbalance.

Likewise, if you have ever seen some with severe bipolar & psychosis in a manic episode talking to God & running out in traffic (happened today) vs. stable on meds, I would like for you to tell me this is a pseudoscience.

Finally, seeing someone enter into an ER suicidally depressed vs. a month later actually smiling....that is this crock-of-shit mental health system at work that you are hoping to see disseminated.

Again, sorry therapy didn't work for you as a kid.

As a matter of fact, my own brother is a paranoid schizophrenic, and I have seen what "meds" have done for him: absolutely nothing whatsoever. He has only gotten worse, not better, since the he started taking meds three or four years ago.

Liberals perceive that people are dramatically better off while on meds because that is what they expect to see. Lacking any commitment to reality, liberals are perfectly content to "see" what they want to see. Why? because distorting reality is their forte, and that's just the way they are.

Again, sorry therapy didn't work for you as a kid.

By the way, snide remarks like this expose the true liberal spirit. Despite their utter pretense of caring about people with mental health problems, liberals are perfectly happy to ridicule someone for receiving treatment, and even generate false accusations of someone having received mental health treatment. The goal of liberals is discredit and degrade everyone else, not to actually help people with mental health problems.

I'm sorry the meds didn't work for your brother. paranoid schizophrenia is a rough condition. I guess I am a little biased here because my experience has been so different. I have an uncle with paranoid schizophrenia, and in his case it is like night & day (on the meds vs. off the meds). He got diagnosed around 19 or 20 and really went off the deep end, had to drop out of college.

When he is off of his meds, he really Truly believes Everyone is out to get him! Any remark is taken as a threat no matter what the persons intention is. He will lock himself in his apartment, refuse contact with the outside world. By contrast, at times when he takes his meds he is pretty much a normal guy - talks to his neighbors, has a few friends, goes to work, plays basketball, has a quirky sense of humor, does things with the family.

By the way, I'm curious about why you assume I'm a liberal. I'm actually more politically conservative on most issues.

recycled plastic,

Thanks a bunch for dominating this thread, spreading your unsolicited drivel. Get the hell off my post, you jackass. Thanks to the one responder who provided some useful input.

One nugget of gold I saw in your post - you believe that schizophrenia has no neurological basis? It is does not have a fundamental neurodevelopmental/genetic etiology but is rooted simply in maladaptive ideological thoughts? I find this strange considering that you have a brother who is suffering from the thought disorder. Also I find it strange that while your brother is suffering from this you advocate shooting people with extreme, violent thoughts stemming from schizophrenia delusions - "like a mad dog"

recycled plastic wrote:

douglas burke wrote:

become a productive and tax paying member of society.

another nugget of gold I didn't see previously. This is exactly why so many people in our society are going insane nowadays - because people sense that life is hopeless in a world where paying taxes is considered the pinnacle of virtue. Maybe, rather than killing psychotics, we could get to the root of the problem by killing all the liberals instead.

So, wccelder, thanks for your input. I believe I could do this work. I think it might be fun. I have read the job descriptions at the websites of BCBS, Value Options, and Magellan. Do you think one of these companies would want more experience though? I only became fully licensed (LPC) last fall.

Thanks!

Also it is true that current crop of anti-psychotics are at best somewhat efficacious. But they don't treat the negative or cognitive symptoms which can be more debilitating and they have bad side effects. As opposed to tilting at windmills trying to argue that the entire mental health field should be abolished, you should be arguing for more fundamental neuroscience research. This is the key to one day helping people with these disorders.

Need a new gig wrote:

So, wccelder, thanks for your input. I believe I could do this work. I think it might be fun. I have read the job descriptions at the websites of BCBS, Value Options, and Magellan. Do you think one of these companies would want more experience though? I only became fully licensed (LPC) last fall.

Thanks!

I think if you have been researching this for a while (which sounds like you have) and still like all that you hear about it, you will really enjoy it. I work in Arizona, and we had Value Options here until about 2-3 years ago, before Magellan took over. V.O. is a huge company, however they were in part, negligent in the area's they ran in the phoenix area. I think they over extended themselves a little when they got to Arizona, and our medicaid system is really different from the other 49 states.

However that is just one state, and they successfully run organizations in a few dozen other states. I have had a real good experience working with Magellan, and BC/BS is a different beast all together. Your pay options may be higher at BC/BS, however their work model is a bit different then that of VO or Magellan.

As far as experience goes, you will have to study up on things like: health care compliance(just know the 7 steps of a compliance program), utilization management, and medical necessity. If you can demonstrate you know how to identify those, then your degree/licensure should help make up for any lack of work experience. Without a master's or license, you would be required to have another 3-5 years of experience, so you should be in a good position. LEt me know if you have anymore questions.

I'm all for medicating people that need it, but recycled paper does have a point that they are ticking timebombs as soon as they go off their meds.

I work with a guy who is fine 95% of time. But every now and then he has one of those days where his whole demeanor changes, he starts to mumble to himself, refuses to acknowledge anyone and then makes comments about how he is going to "bring the entire office down" or "take everyone with him." This is scary s$#*. He shows all the signs.

recycled plastic wrote:

As a matter of fact, my own brother is a paranoid schizophrenic, and I have seen what "meds" have done for him: absolutely nothing whatsoever. He has only gotten worse, not better, since the he started taking meds three or four years ago.

When are you planning on killing him like a mad dog with rabies?

I agree with recycled plastic. My mom is a paranoid schizophrenic, on meds or not, who knows, she is always crazy.

I have no medical background but have read a LOT about psychiatric meds, took them myself for depression . . . they are awful, not helpful, chemistry experiments, that quite often cause excessive weight gain, among other horrible side effects, so unless someone really is hearing the television talk to them . . .the concern about the negative health effects of the weight gain alone should cause psychiatrists to stop shoveling sh*t into the mouths of their patients.

no way wrote:

I agree with recycled plastic. My mom is a paranoid schizophrenic, on meds or not, who knows, she is always crazy.

I have no medical background but have read a LOT about psychiatric meds, took them myself for depression . . . they are awful, not helpful, chemistry experiments, that quite often cause excessive weight gain, among other horrible side effects, so unless someone really is hearing the television talk to them . . .the concern about the negative health effects of the weight gain alone should cause psychiatrists to stop shoveling sh*t into the mouths of their patients.

Ah, a sample size of n=2.

I don't think I will have any more questions. Thanks, you've been most helpful.