Book of D: We Need to Have that Other Talk: Mental Health

It's vital to keep talking about it. As a country, we've gotten better but it's nowhere at the level that it should be. More money needs to be put into it. For example, the insurance industry needs better regulations. Most counselors don't accept health insurance because the insurance industry makes it difficult for them to file. That's one way to battle the rise of mental health. Another way is to offer more free mental health opportunities and resources. Currently, there aren't enough. Most counselors offer pro bono sessions, but they cannot afford to offer more. There are currently about 100,000 counselors in this country, but we need more. The government should make counseling programs cheaper. The cost for a mental health graduate program these days is about $75,000 to $100,000. We students don't get much financial aid. We should get as much as nurses or other medical students get. We have to undergo an arduous program that consists of tons of hours of training and student counseling, and even when we graduate with 65 required credit hours including 100 hrs of practicum and 600 hrs of internship, we still have to do 3000 more hours after graduation before we get a license,  LPC. The government should help make mental health counseling grad programs more affordable because right now, it's not and that's why less and less people are going into the mental health practice. It's not a cheap field to get into, but I wouldn't change a thing because helping others is helping myself.