Are the mental health services getting better or worse?

In the last 10 to 20 years has the mental health service improved? Is the mental health service getting better or worse?

Are the therapies getting better?

Personally I think the emphasis is too much on time and costs. Everything has to be as quick and cost-effective as possible.

What is your opinion?

Being involved in the MH field for the last 15 yrs or so, it has gotten a whole lot better. Speaking from a victim POV of course. The meds have come a long way from LITHIUM, and there is no more counseling I can get, cuz..............I done had it all! Peace!

It's not getting better. But there are those few who really do want to help.

Therapy is becoming better, and strait jackets are illegal. However, the system is still the same for mental health conditions. The basic idea is to keep these people off the streets and to give them shelter. None the less, there are many cases in which people with varying degrees of mental illness have made full or partial recoveries.

In my area... I think it has gotten worse. The turn around in our local couseling service with therapist is very fast...you get a relationship going and poof they have moved on to open their own practices..which only take certain insurances... there is your money factor.
Therapist look at the clocks...worried about filling out paperwork before their next client instead of paying attention to the client in the room.
Crisis workers that are fresh out of school...not trained, can't handle tough cases.
I think that it has gone down hill, and I have watched it happen. And felt the effects from it.

Wow! What an amazing question. Very difficult to answer.

The mental health world is sadly stepping away from therapy and moving towards a pill poping profession. This due to insurance companies would rather pay for a quick fix rather than *treatment*.

terms of medication, the technology is getting better so the medications are becoming more sophisitcated with less side effects. So medications indicated in mental health is getting better.

Sadly therapy is getting worse, this being due to, as you said, time and cost. We ( I am a therapist) are under so much pressure from insurance companies that they will not pay us for more than a few sessions and what they are willing to pay is minimal. As someone who spent 20 years in school to get a graduate degree and spend more time fighting with insurance companies than actually treating the client is very heart breaking.

The worst off is the community mental health providers. States continue to "reform" mental health, meaning they will let people get meds but not pay for therapy. Infact, a month ago the State of North Carolina cut Mental Healh services provided by Medicaid by 34% making almost impossible for therapist providing services to survive.

Until the emphasis of mental health is taken off time, this pill popping generation will continue...what an absolute heartbreak.