How Young, Marginalized Groups Can Face Roadblocks on Their Path to Mental Health
“You should see a therapist.”
I know I’ve said that phrase countless times to friends working through mental health struggles. But I’m a recent college graduate — the majority of my friends cannot afford therapy.
For some, it’s because they moved to ritzy New York City or Chicago and fork over their paychecks immediately for rent. For them and many, many others it’s in part because student loan repayments just kicked in.
Many U.S. colleges and universities offer “free” health services (typically funding is pulled from segregated fees that are sneakily looped into students’ tuition, but sure, it feels free when you use it). Some schools might have physically accessible health providers, but at a cost, or students must have specific insurance to take advantage of them. do not provide such health services, unless you have specific insurance.
But either way, you’re walking off campus and entering adult life, perhaps being untethered from your parent’s insurance you graduate. Poof — no more walkable, fake-free medical center.
And for those needing mental health care, the idea of finding a suitable therapist, navigating insurance and figuring out payment can be debilitating enough to push people away from seeking such care. Often, recent graduates could not even imagine splurging on therapy.
Not only recent graduates-turned-young professionals, but all people with income barriers. And it’s no secret people living in the U.S. strapped for cash often belong to one or more marginalized populations — people of color, transgender folx and young mothers to name a few — and often these people need mental health care the most.
Full disclosure: I’ve been seeing a therapist for about three years. I’m incredibly lucky my parents let me cling onto their decent health insurance plan. And as I started writing this piece I reflected on how quick I am to suggest friends go to therapy. Friends who are like me — early 20s, fresh into their career, mostly LGBTQ+-identifying — the same types of people who commonly cannot access therapy.
People of various identities do not feel comfortable seeing a therapist; sometimes, that is deeply ingrained in a culture. Fellow Camp Thirlby Counselor Iyana Jones wrote about her and her mother’s experience going to therapy despite their Caribbean roots that instruct people to keep their problems quiet. Similarly, writer Liz Lin discusses seeking therapy despite it being taboo in Asian American societies.
It’s easier nowadays to find an LGBTQ-friendly therapist through quick internet searches. Psychology Today’s filters often pin those to the top of your list, as you can mark preferences at the beginning. Mental Health America offers good tips as well. But in areas where there are limited options, therapists who are that clear about their level of support are harder to come by.
But there’s hope for LGBTQ+ folks seeking mental healthcare: The Human Rights Campaign found in its 2019 Healthcare Equality Index that 60% of 680 responding healthcare facilities offer LGBTQ-focused mental healthcare services.
GLMA, a national organization of health professionals advancing LGBTQ+ equality, built a directory for LGBTQ-friendy providers, including mental health providers. There’s similar resources for finding therapists who belong to one’s same various demographics: Therapy for Black Girls, National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and Association of Black Pyschologists, just to name a few.
But the short of it is, if it’s not explicitly listed or a therapist is not found through a trusted source like one of these, people of marginalized communities may be facing a therapist with either little knowledge or implicit biases of one’s identity. And like the anxious post-grad too paralyzed to figure out payment for therapy, marginalized folks may not go and instead suffer quietly.
There are, however, a few resources for those who cannot afford one-on-one therapy. Group therapy is cheaper than private therapy, but discussing deep, personal feelings with others is certainly not for everyone. Often one can contact group therapists (the same goes for private therapists) and conduct brief interviews to ensure the therapist or group setting fits.
There’s also Open Path Psychotherapy Collective. The national nonprofit connects middle- to low-income individuals, couples and families with reduced-priced, in-office therapy services. According to their website, Open Path has made 30,000 successful patient-therapist matches in its eight years as an organization.
Now we’re in the midst of a pandemic. Many people are self-isolating around the globe, and that loneliness coupled with doom-and-gloom rhetoric circulating all over social media can be detrimental to one’s mental health. But if you sift through the doom-and-gloom, social media users post suggestions for self-care and finding professional health during these trying times.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness compiled a comprehensive guide that offers advice about coping with the pandemic and directs people to hotlines, virtual support groups and other ways folks can find help.
As you may be thinking, we’ve sort of come full circle from the start of this article. Sure, you can research and research to find an affordable, affirming therapist. Where do you find the time? Don’t you have to work to make even the small amount of money you do, then come home and are so exhausted the last thing you want to do is study therapists’ profiles?
Time and money are scarce for many early career individuals and those belonging to marginalized communities. In a dream world, we’d all have access to the mental health care we need and not adding that to our list of stressors.
But in this world, for now, avoid making “you should see a therapist” your go-to advice after learning above that for many, that is far from an option.
About the Author
Sammy Gibbons (she/her) writes news for the Door County Advocate by day, but creates fiction stories by night. One of her short stories will be published in “Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary and Art Journal” this summer. She recently graduated last year from the University of Wisconsin where she studied journalism and creative writing. She wants to eventually continue her education in gender and women’s studies. She forces people to listen to music she’s bursting to talk about on a podcast, but besides that only talks about her cat and queer media. She wants to hear your tattoo stories, vent about mental health and collab on a zine.
