We wrote this book to help you improve your mental health in the face of what can be a bewildering, flawed, and, at times, heartless mental health system. We showed you what mental illness is all about and why good care is so difficult to find. You learned to navigate the system and improve your mental health by working collaboratively with mental health professionals. You saw how your skills and time complement what they can offer. Finally, you saw how the many treatments and interventions for mental illness fit together, what they have in common, how they differ, and how to best choose and use them.
In a moment, we’ll turn our eyes to the not-too-distant future. But first, these words of advice.
Are you the type who reads a self-help book cover-to-cover before starting to apply what you’ve learned? You have too many things buzzing through your mind, have lost track of many others, and are probably more than a bit overwhelmed. If that’s the case, now is a perfect time to take stock of your current situation and take your first steps forward.
Start by collecting the basic tools of the trade (see the Get Prepared chapter). At the very least, pick one place where you can gather all your mental health information.
Review the Describing Your Symptoms chapter. Try to concisely describe what aspects of your mental health are causing you the most distress and are interfering with your life. You may want to review this with a friend or family member.
If you’ve tried some lifestyle changes, supplements, prescription medications, or therapy, write them down. Did they help, and, if so, how much?
Optionally, skim the typical questions in the Mental Health Interviews chapter. Jot down answers to those questions that particularly resonate.
Make an appointment with your family doctor (or, find a nearby walk-in clinic) to start the process. Don’t expect an answer at your first appointment. For some tips, see the Working With Your Family Doctor chapter.
Afterwards, begin to sketch out what will evolve into your living treatment plan (see the Your Living Treatment Plan chapter).
We’ve described the benefits of being actively involved in your care. What will mental health care look like in a few years? We can make some predictions based on current trends. Will the skills you’ve learned here help you in the future? They may be even more important.
There’s always something new around the corner. Genetic testing, as well as more advanced imaging, is in its early days. While you can still expect incremental changes to current medications, look for treatments and interventions based on new—but preliminary—understanding of mental illness, e.g., inflammation or other causes.
New is always exciting, but a silver bullet is unlikely. You’ll approach anything new as another item to potentially add to your living treatment plan. It’s another intervention among many, and you’ll weigh its applicability against other options. If you try it, be sure to evaluate it against what’s most important: your own goals and symptoms.
You do your own banking, scan your own groceries, and record your daily steps and sleep. Tracking your own mental health is not a big leap. Don’t be surprised if clinics will require all their patients to fill out scales online between appointments, or use mood tracking apps or devices. They’ll have more data to work with, which could be used to identify problems early on, leading to changes in your treatment plan.
If everyone is required to track their mental health, details specific to your own situation may be missed. Since you’re already monitoring your own mental health, you know what measurements to focus on and how to interpret changes. You won’t agree to treatment changes based on one simple measure if you know something else is a factor. You’ve practiced how to assertively but respectfully communicate with your treatment providers to ensure that point comes across.
Clinic software already requires providers to collect more data at each appointment, even if it’s not needed for clinical care. That takes a big chunk of time out of most peoples’ appointments.
You, however, know the time and information challenges faced by mental health professionals and can help them simplify these tasks. You’ll come prepared to your appointment with answers they can enter quickly. You’ll work together to balance the time in your appointments, getting over the routine parts as quickly as possible. Still, with less time, it will be even more critical for you to prepare ahead and provide direction to get the most out of every appointment.
The sustainability of the health care system is a growing concern. This will lead to even less time with specialists, and more of your care handled in routine ways by less expensive care providers. With the increasing demand for mental health care, this trend won’t stop anytime soon.
This likely isn’t a good thing, but you’re well prepared to deal with it. Everything you’ve learned here has helped you help yourself in the face of limited or inadequate resources. You’ve got a huge head start.
Even if the basic level of mental health care available to the public is shrinking, there will always be extra services available for those who can afford them. Expect more privately paid, professional patient navigators specifically for mental health. It’s already happening.1 They’ll offer a broader range of services addressing the entire spectrum of mental health care.
You already have the right attitude and skills. You wouldn’t need to rely on such services for most of your care. Still, there may be small areas where you may want to access them. And, after all you now know and have gone through, you may find helping others to be an attractive career option.
With so much information shared online, look for new tools and technologies to help you maintain and share things such as your living treatment plan electronically.
Don’t expect your care providers to start collaborating with you to maintain it. They’re already overloaded, and privacy will remain a concern. Close sharing is still unnatural in health care. Likely, you’ll share your plan with your care providers as you do now. Each has their unique area of emphasis, treatment style, and personality. You’ll work with each one differently. What ties it together and makes it work is that you’re in the centre. As you should be.
Improving your mental well-being is a lifelong journey. By practicing what you’ve learned here, and continuing to learn, you’ll make the most of this journey. You’ll increase your resilience in the face of further challenges. You’re determined, and willing to be accountable for your own care. You listen, learn, respect others, and that attracts respect. You’re persistent enough to get what you need, even if it’s not always readily available. You are empowered. It’s your mental health.
Finally, we invite you to visit our website: mhnav.com.
There, you’ll find a broad collection of tools and resources to complement this book, including updates and extras. It will also help you connect with us. Turn to Appendix A to learn more.
We’d love to hear about your own experiences with mental health care. What have you learned? What problems did you run into? Do you have any tips to share that could help others?
We look forward to hearing from you.
These mental health navigation services usually start by reviewing your case and connecting you with the right mental health provider. Some are part of existing services that connect people with a range of medical specialists.
https://bestdoctors.com
Others are dedicated entirely to mental health care navigation, like this small company in California:
https://merrittmentalhealth.com↩
Now Available! A MSP-supported live course for BC residents based on the book. [Mar/2023]
While you can read it for free online, there are conditions on sharing it with others (see below). You can also still purchase copies in paperback or e-book (PDF, Kindle, Kobo, etc.).
Now Available! A MSP-supported live course for BC residents based on the book.
