Costs for Therapy

[NeedaName]

Whenever I think about looking into therapy, I find myself staring at our budget. The same thing has been coming back up for me for about 10 years with the same thought process. I look online for cost estimates that show me therapists aren't upfront and may or may not have sliding rates but no absolutes that I could feel confident about. I look at our benefits and it "might" cover something. OHIP doesn't deem therapy important enough to pay for it. Work benefits give the impression that this is something optional, if I don't want to pay for it, don't seek it. So, then I just feel guilty about looking for another bill to add to our budget. These assurances that they'll look at your income before deciding isn't reassuring given we've got debt and kids. Income isn't the problem, our costs are. I feel guilty. If I really needed it, I wouldn't be focused on the cost. But then, I never got my feet checked out because it wasn't covered by OHIP. I go to the dentist because I changed work plans to cover it 100%.

It's like there's this mixed message, seek help for these issues but we're going to be particularly elusive about the first steps. As though the cost won't ultimately be a deciding factor. Of course it's a deciding factor. On what planet do they live where people don't worry about this stuff? Who goes through with it before they run out of options? If mental health really were as important as physical health, it would be covered by OHIP.

I'm just generally frustrated. Going for therapy is anxiety inducing enough without burden of figuring out how to pay for it. It's so much easier to get treated for physical symptoms covered by OHIP. Am I the only person that balks at the unknown costs?

 

[Banned]

Hi NaN,

I can certainly understand your frustrations with the costs of therapy. Getting healthy is not cheap. There are, however, some good options available that can hopefully help.

Most major centres will have some sort of community-based counselling at very reduced rates. There are organizations such as Catholic Family Services (Catholic in this sense means "universal" as opposed to the religious affiliation), Jewish Family Services, here in Calgary we have the Calgary Counselling Centre that has both registered psychologists and provisional psychologists that offer services at very reduced fees.

Other options are if your employer has an assistance program such as EFAP (Employee Family and Assistance Program). With programs like this you can receive free counselling up to a number of sessions and often get extensions.

There are online counselling programs that may be more affordable and also yes, if you do the legwork, you can definitely find some therapists who operate on a sliding fee scale. It is often not published on websites but even if they offer it online you still want that initial visit to feel them out anyway.

I hope you can find some help that fits within your budget. It is easy to say "don't choose based on price" but the reality is there is only so much money in the bank.

Good luck and let us know if we can help more.

 

[positivethoughts]

Hi,

I totally understand when you talk about the cost of therapy. We are a single income family with four kids and I live in a rural area, so it is hard to get a psychologist or a psychiatrist either with or without a sliding scale, and their case loads are full.

The EFAP I have with my husband's company is of short term used, only six weeks. I talk to my husband and explained that EFAP was not the way to go for me because the therapy was on and off ( go in for six weeks take a break for eight to twelve weeks and then go back); I took the decision to pay for my therapy, so that I could have a consistency in my therapy and not worry about the time frame. It is a lot of sacrifices for us to do this. For me it came down to IS my mental health and families more important than the money spent to be healthy. I have been in therapy for eight years; six of these years I have opted to pay for my therapy so that I have consistency.

Have you Considered these options:

The cost to see a psychologist is more then to see a good therapist. Have you considered a therapist instead of a psychologist? I used a therapist that worked under a psychologist so I could get the session payed by my health plan and the psychologist monitors the treatment.

If you are in a large urban area with universities around, you could try to contact the universities and see if you can get into the program where you can see one of the Grad student finishing their post graduate work.

I have used Canadian Mental Health Association. They are free to use. It will take about six to eight week to start seeing someone, once they start the in-take.

Talk to your doctor about referring you to an agency that offers free counselling. I know someone who sees a Social Worker for her therapy at no cost by being refer to by her doctor.

Also, in Ontario there is a section in the taxes to write off the cost of medical bills, such as dentist,psychologist,massage therapist....

Hope it helps.

 

[NeedaName]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not bothered by the differences between therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist. I wouldn't go to anything with a religious association. I'm nervous enough about having anything related to mental health on my medical file. I'm wholly unprepared to have it on anything work related. I'm a stay-at-home mum since last year, but even when I was working, my professional life and personal life have always been kept separate. I've never appreciated any overlaps. I don't like the idea of my husband's work benefits being used, I'm paranoid it could come back and bite me. Besides the wording on the benefits didn't look promising.

All I really want, is to be able to go to my family dr, get a referral to a therapist and have it covered by OHIP. The more screwing around, the higher my anxiety levels go and I completely lose my nerve. I enjoyed diving from a cliff and natural birth. I wouldn't usually think myself a coward, but this is a lot harder than it should be.

 

[positivethoughts]

could come back and bite me.

Could you explain what you mean by this. I know that the insurance company can not release anything without your consent. I would call them and ask questions because sometimes what you read is not what you have available to you.

I know that no medical records can be release to your work without your consent or to anyone.

Here is the website for the privacy act in Canada: Canadian privacy law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As I mention I live in a rural area; population 7,000. Everyone knows everyone. It was hard for me to use some of the programs in my area. I refused many time to go to the hospital because I could the face the people at the hospital. I put everyone around me in danger; I could simply have gone to the hospital and said that I needed something for my moods and saved everyone around me so much grief.

Part of what I am learning through my therapist is that it is okay to have bad days and it is important to ask for the help. Call the hotlines, talk to someone at EFAP, make an appointment with a program in your area.

I would like you to remember that there is more than one way to achieve what you want.

I know that because the doctors are aware that I can use EFAP and the health plan, many time this is the direction that they will send me in. I think it is so that they can use the resources for people who have none.

 

[NeedaName]

Could you explain what you mean by this. I know that the insurance company can not release anything without your consent. I would call them and ask questions because sometimes what you read is not what you have available to you.

I have a general distrust of corporations. I've worked at a few and witnessed all of them break laws. They aren't likely to be caught and if they are, they fight it in court. Health care shouldn't be tied to employment in the first place. The whole thing is unsavory. I have little faith in corporation's or the government's ability to protect our privacy. e-Health? The joke, that was me, signing up for the no-call list. Or that you can't purge things from your own medical records; insurance (life, mortgage, travel etc..) companies could always use that for their own purposes at a later date to reject a claim. Besides laws change with governments and shifts in voter attitudes. Voters that don't view mental illnesses as medical conditions unless the patient has reached the point that they're not able to function normally within society.

Sorry about the rant.

Why is help reliant on phones? I tried contacting a local program by email once, they gave me a phone number to call them back at. What was with the email address then?

My HS had over 2000 people positivethoughts. I wouldn't last long in a town of 7000 people. I'm used to cities with millions of people. I like being swallowed up in big crowds, lots of buildings, lots of activity, lots of anonymity.