The War On Mental Health: Outcome Research

Third party payers of your mental health needs are demanding that there are good outcomes in mental health counseling. This all makes sense. You should get good quality services when you go to a mental health counselor. However, their approach to quality research and sound information appears to be highly flawed with a definite agenda in mind. The Medical Model (1) ,with all its money, is attempting to limit the legitimate choices of what therapy consumers receive. The Medical Model is attempting to justify that medications and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (2) combined is the best approach to your mental health.

I received a newsletter in the mail that was sent from the Washington State Department of Health (WSDH). The WSDH is the entity that licenses all the mental health disciplines. In this newsletter, the following was stated:

Avoiding the Medical Model

Faced with the complexities of informed consent, standard of care, note taking, etc., some therapists have tried to opt out of these requirements by simply taking the position that they do not believe in, or endorse the medical model, and therefore they should not be held to it. This has the same effectiveness as reporting to the Internal Revenue service that you do not believe that the tax laws are valid, and that you should not have to comply with them. The medical model will generally be imposed with or without your agreement.
Brandt Caudill Jr., Clinical Social Work Federation Newsletter, November 2003.

It appears that the mental health field has gone to war over research protocal for informed best practice. It is time for the heroes to emerge in order to start leveling the battlefield. There is a book available called "The Heroic Client: Doing Client-Directed, Outcome-Informed Therapy"(3) that confronts false claims in the mental health field. The authors of this book have websites that you may want to explore (4) and (5). This grassroots organization seek to take back the field of mental health and finally give the consumers a voice along with truly ethical work with mental health counselors.

Footnotes:
(1) refer to September 15, 2004 blog

(2) refer to September 16, 2004 blog

(3) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787972401/qid=1095789424/sr=ka-3/ref=pd_ka_3/002-1802842-2709649

(4) http://www.talkingcure.com/

(5) http://www.heroicagencies.org/