Mental healtcare accessibility

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Ball State University *

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104

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English

Date

Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by MateMorningCamel37

1 Fitzgerald Allie Fitzgerald Dr. Allison Hitt English 104 28 January 2024 Mental HealthCare Accessibility Moving out as a young adult comes with many struggles. These struggles can build up and cause an unhealthy amount of emotions or stress, which is why mental health care is so important. I moved to college when I was 18 years old and found myself overwhelmed with many mental struggles. Since I was in college and on my own, I was unaware on how to receive mental health care until I was at my breaking point. I didn’t know how insurance or medical bills worked, or even who to contact to receive the help I needed. I felt as if mental health care was inaccessible to me, and I had soon found out it wasn’t only just me. I decided to interview three students who attend Ball State and have had experiences with Ball States health center and mental care accessibility. For privacy we will call these students A, B, and C. A is a 19-year-old female who struggles with anxiety, lives off campus, and seeks help through Ball States health center. B is a 20-year-old transgender male who also lives off campus, struggles with depression, borderline personality disorder, and goes to therapy through Ball States Counseling center. C is a 20-year-old male who lives on campus at Ball State University, struggles with major depressive disorder, and receives counseling and medication through Ball States health center. I interviewed and asked each student to tell me about their experiences with mental health care through Ball State, to rate the health center on a scale 1-10 with 1 being the worst, and to

2 Fitzgerald give me examples on what they would want to see differently with mental health care at Ball State. A has experienced positive and negative things through Ball States health center. A explained that the health center was very flexible with making appointments in person and through telehealth. A also said that the only negative aspect was how long it took to get prescriptions through the health center. A rated the mental health care as a 7 out of 10 and wants to see a change in pharmaceuticals in hopes that they might put a pharmacy on campus. B was not as pleased with Ball States mental health care. B has struggled with receiving certain medications through Ball States health center and had to venture to another doctor. B has also had issues with feeling judgement from counselors and therapists through Ball States counseling services. B rated the mental healthcare as a 2 out of 10 and does not recommend any changes but instead recommends going somewhere else to receive mental health care. C has had a few issues with Ball States health center such as medications taking a long time to process through pharmacies and having to switch therapists due to not feeling comfortable with the one they were assigned to at first. Overall, C said they are receiving mediocre care and is not impressed but also not upset with it since it is on a college campus. C rated the health center as a 5 out of 10 and recommends that they find more employees who care about their jobs so that the therapists do not seem so uninterested in what they are doing to help students. I also asked myself these same questions, my experiences have not been good. I have experienced having to go without my medications because the doctors and psychiatrists wait until the last minute to send in prescriptions. I also experienced going through a very traumatic few weeks due to there being no openings for an appointment to get medications. I would rate

3 Fitzgerald the health center a 2 out of 10 and I would recommend having a pharmacy on campus and some sort of crisis building where they take issues more seriously. Overall, there are positive and negative things being said about Ball States mental health care. Some people believe that there can be improvement with the care givers at Ball State, while others think that their experiences were negative, and they could have received more care. As a student at Ball State who has my own experiences with receiving mental health care at Ball State, I find it sad to hear other students recommend to just find help elsewhere. I believe as someone who also needs these services that they should be more accessible than they are. As previously mentioned, I receive mental health care through Ball State. In the beginning of my mental healthcare journey, I had reached out to get help when I desperately needed it. I was then told to wait three weeks before I was able to get a consultation through the health center. For three weeks I was depressed, unmotivated, skipping classes, laying in my bed for days, and simply rotting away because my mental health continued to deteriorate. I felt helpless and I felt like nobody cared to get me in to get the help I needed. After finally getting a consultation, I was diagnosed as bipolar and with major depressive disorder. I was then prescribed many meds that I had to wait another two weeks to get. To this day, the psychiatrist I see through Ball States health center does not send out my prescription refills until the day before I run out of the previous prescription which usually ends with me going two to three days without my medications. As someone who deals with mental health struggles, it is not okay to wait for help. Mental health can deteriorate very quickly leading people into unsafe thoughts or situations. In 2022 49,500 people took their own lives. (suicides) This was an all-time high record for suicide. Mental health care accessibility is so important to me because I have felt suicidal, and I do not want to become another statistic.

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