Insurers, Not Legislators, are the Gatekeepers to Care, and a Call to Deep Six the Term "Worried Well."

Over onPete Earley's blog, there is a post titled:Senators ’ Letter To SAMHSA Is Misguided: Dr. McCance-Katz Is Doing What Congress DemandedPete is on the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee,  a group operating under the Department of Health and Human Services. He is an extraordinary writer and a tremendous mental health advocate.  His post inspired me to rant at him (Me rant?  Shocking, I know...) and Pete and I are both posting my response.  I can't begin to capture the essence of his post on the controversy over the NREPP website, nor will you need to understand that to read my response, but  please read about it at the link above.  ____Dear Pete:Thank you for your latest blog post on the work Dr. McCance-Katz is doing and thank you, again, for serving on the ISMICC.  Let me start by saying that after 25+ years as a psychiatrist, I've never heard of the NREPP website, so I'm not certain whether it's it is a good thing or a bad thing that the website is now down.  Instead, I'd like to respond to some of the things that were said in the course of your blog post.You used the term "worried well."  Please don't use that term, ever.  It implies that there are people with legitimate suffering because they have "real" mental illnesses, and those whose suffering is trivial because they don't have "serious" mental illness.  Suffering is suffering-- it all hurts, and sometimes those with no obvi...
Source: Shrink Rap - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: blogs