Clinician Seeks to Make Mental Health Care Affordable

by Deona Hooper, MSW

I was checking out my twitter feed when I saw a tweet from North Carolina native, Paul Fugelsang, who tweeted out his recent article in Huffington Post. I love reading Huff Post, so I decided to check it out. The article was both insightful and inspirational in its effort to make mental health care affordable. Paul was hit by pure inspiration when he created Open Path which will help mental health clinicians who want to help their communities be more efficient and supported while they do it. Cryptic, not really…..Paul has developed a nonprofit called Open Path Psychotherapists to help create a community of mental health clinicians who offer low cost counseling services to low-income clients in addition to their regular clients. The idea was to create a central directory of clinicians who is willing to provide services at a lower cost, but also make it easier for clients to locate them in their communities.  In exchange for being apart of the network, mental health clinicians who were already providing these low cost services on their own, can now be supported within a networking community that may assist them with other tools such as marketing their practice and other incentives.

Here is an excerpt from Paul’s Huff Post article explaining what inspired him to create Open Path:

We know that mental health care is expensive. For most it’s more expensive than they can afford. I didn’t begin to fully experience the disparity of wealth in our country until I set out to build my private psychotherapy practice six years ago.

I launched my practice with some naïveté: I wanted to help as many people as possible. I took on clients at a low fee. But gradually reality dawned: I couldn’t afford to take on too many low-fee clients. I just wasn’t going to be able to provide for my family if I did.

One night a woman called me in crisis. As we talked I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to help her: My waiting list was already too long. Heart sinking, I referred her to the mental health agency in my county. I felt like a cog in a system I didn’t embrace. She would probably encounter delays and uncertain care there: Very likely she made too much money to qualify for their services. Read Full Article on Huffington Post

If you are a  mental health clinician who already provides low cost services or who is interested in taking on a few clients at a reduced rate, contact Open Path. Here is a video that will better explain the beauty of what Paul has created: