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BYU suicide and campus mental health appt. wait times


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Looks like a useful tool for finding help:

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help/index.shtml

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For general information on mental health and to locate treatment services in your area, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Referral Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA also has a Behavioral Health Treatment Locatoron its website that can be searched by location.

National agencies and advocacy and professional organizations have information on finding a mental health professional and sometimes practitioner locators on their websites. Examples include but are not limited to:

Anxiety and Depression Association of America

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance

Mental Health America

National Alliance on Mental Illness

University or medical school-affiliated programs may offer treatment options. Search on the website of local university health centers for their psychiatry or psychology departments.

You can also go to the website of your state or county government and search for the health services department.

Some federal agencies offer resources for identifying practitioners and assistance in finding low cost health services. These include:

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):HRSA works to improve access to health care. The website has information on finding affordable healthcare, including health centers that offer care on a sliding fee scale.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): CMS has information on the website about benefits and eligibility for these programs and how to enroll.

The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus website also has lists of directories and organizations that can help in identifying a health practitioner.

Practitioner lists in health care plans can provide mental health professionals that participate with your plan.

Mental Health and Addiction Insurance Help: This website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers resources to help answer questions about insurance coverage for mental health care....[continues on, also has direct links]

 

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I can't follow the postings on this thread.  We shouldn't fight. It is too sad.  Suicide is such a tragic thing.  For the victim, for the victim's family and friends, and for society as a whole. This isn't about the church.  It is about us.  Last summer my teaching assistant committed suicide.  Nineteen years old.  A UVU student with a 3.4 gpa. Such a devastating loss. 

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1 hour ago, sunstoned said:

I can't follow the postings on this thread.  We shouldn't fight. It is too sad.  Suicide is such a tragic thing.  For the victim, for the victim's family and friends, and for society as a whole. This isn't about the church.  It is about us.  Last summer my teaching assistant committed suicide.  Nineteen years old.  A UVU student with a 3.4 gpa. Such a devastating loss. 

I’m so sorry. That is devastating. 

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An interesting article about some colleges that collect and share suicide stats and others that don't:

https://apnews.com/8c3cdbf1fa22472fb33318e5499e888c

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Close to half of the nation’s largest public universities do not track suicide deaths among their students, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Through public records requests, the AP asked the 100 largest public universities in the U.S. for annual student suicide statistics over the past decade. Suicide rates for those that provided data ranged from 0.27 suicides per 100,000 students to 8 per 100,000, but because of the inconsistency in responses the AP is not publishing figures for colleges that provided data.

Linked to in the above article:

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The issue has come to the fore as some schools report today’s students are arriving on campus less prepared for the rigors of college. Many schools have increased spending on mental health services to counter what the American Psychological Association and other groups have called a mental health crisis on campuses.

Surveys have found increasing rates of anxiety and depression among college students, but some experts say the problem only appears to be worsening because students who might have stayed silent in the past are taking advantage of the increasing availability of help.

“It’s unfortunate that people are characterizing this outcome as a crisis,” said Ben Locke, who runs a national mental-health network for colleges and leads the counseling center at Penn State. “It’s counterproductive because it’s criticizing the exact people we’ve encouraged to come forward.”

Adding to the skepticism is that young adults in college have been found to have lower suicide rates than their peers. But they are also at an age when disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar depression often start to develop....

National studies have found that suicide rates are on the rise in the United States, reaching 13 per 100,000 among all Americans and 12.5 among those ages 15 to 24. Much of the data on suicide comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which does not specifically track college suicides.

The gap in information led Dr. James Turner to seek funding for a national reporting system for student deaths in 2009 when he was president of the American College Health Association, but the National Institutes of Health didn’t see the value, he said, and it never happened.

“I became puzzled, because we as a society are so interested in the health of college students,” said Turner, who is now retired from the University of Virginia. “Why is it we don’t have a comprehensive way of approaching this?”

The NIH declined to comment for this article.

A total of 27 schools provided statistics to the AP that they say were consistently tracked from 2007 through 2016, amounting to an overall suicide rate of about 4 per 100,000, although numbers from some universities were so low that experts including Roy at the Jed Foundation questioned their accuracy. The University of Arizona, for example, averaged more than 40,000 students per year over the decade but reported just three suicides, a rate of 0.7 per 100,000.

Earlier studies have found average rates between 6.5 and 7.5 per 100,000 among college students. Schools that provided data to the AP had rates ranging from 0.27 to 8. Because of the inconsistency in responses, The Associated Press is not publishing figures for colleges that provided data.

Schools that do track suicides, however, often use their data to refine prevention efforts.

https://apnews.com/45f78abcfcec43e49f4c0fbe06b66a8b

Edited by Calm
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From the article that lost posted earlier...another 'common sense' approach that might be harmful may be restricting tech access.  Also 84% of those with a history of mental illness prior to their deaths were in treatment...which means treatment isn't as effective in preventing suicides as we would like to believe, I am thinking, unfortunately.

https://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2018-03-22/cdc-probes-troubling-rise-in-suicide-among-utah-teens

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For example, more than one-third of the individuals suffered from a diagnosed mental illness, with 31 percent having been in a "depressed mood," the researchers said. More than half had undergone some sort of "recent crisis." In almost 20 percent of cases that was a rift with their family, and in 10 percent of cases it was trouble with an intimate partner.

For those victims with a history of mental illness, most (84 percent) were, in fact, receiving some kind of mental health treatment prior to their deaths. And almost one-third had had a prior suicide attempt or admitted to thoughts about suicide, Annor's team reported.

Of course, social media plays an increasingly important role in young people's lives. The Utah report found that in nearly 13 percent of cases, during the week before the suicide, the victim's family had restricted their access to smartphones, tablets, video games and other devices.

Did cutting off access to the devices help precipitate suicide in those cases? The CDC team isn't sure, but they said that more study is needed to understand whether or not "interruption to [online] social support networks, [or] distress over losing access to the device" might exacerbate already fraught emotional states.

One expert said the Utah numbers should serve as a wake-up call to the United States as a whole.

"The rate of suicide in American youth has been steadily increasing since 2011, and suicide now accounts for the third most common cause of death in children aged 10 to 17," noted Dr. Matthew Lorber, who wasn't involved in the new research.

The Utah study shows "that much of our youth committing suicides have identifiable risk factors, and in order to counteract this alarming trend, we must be increasing access to mental health treatment for our children," said Lorber, who practices adolescent psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

He believes screening for suicidal thoughts and depression should become routine in annual checkups between youth and their pediatricians or family physicians.

And Lorber believes family is key.

"Some common themes seen in these children were family fighting and social isolation. And this shows the importance of both family involvement in mental health treatment of children, as well as the importance of providing social activities," he said.

 

Edited by Calm
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16 hours ago, bsjkki said:

This absolutely is a universal problem. In my experience, LDS social services was invaluable with their referral program. I didn’t know where to start, and they helped. I sometimes have empathy overload and imagine students seeking help and being  told there is a long wait. When you need help, that would be so defeating.

In Kansas, I remember setting up doctors' appts, including a psychiatrist, months in anticipation though just going into a clinic was only a few hours wait, but no long term treatment was given there.  Now that could have been more just me planning ahead, it has been 30 years.  When we were up in Canada though, there were quite a few doctor appts we were waiting for 3 months to get into, including needing a CT scan due to daily vomiting and dizziness (that really pissed me off because it turned out the meds I was taking to keep from puking were what were causing it in the first place, rebound migraines of a version .I hadn't had before, I thought it was a sinus or ear infection and was taking decongestants) and then I got dumped by one doctor and refused to be taken back because they were overbooked just because I sought a second opinion, thankfully the second opinion doctor took me on though she was connected with a clinic so long, long waits even when scheduled appts...and then we would hear about how good we had it in Alberta compared to back east where people were dying before getting in for a cancer appt or to see a cardiologist, so I might be a bit more hardened to it than some here and see it as pretty typical everywhere when it might not be.  

Moving down to Utah this type of delay has happened only with the mental health doctors.  It was three to six months of being on waiting lists of all the therapists and psychiatrists I called for my daughter, so it is not something unique to BYU.  If she misses an appt with her UoU psychiatrist, it is a month and a half to get in for a replacement.  On the other hand, I got in the next day to a physical therapist a few weeks ago and it was only four days for an appt with the endocrinologist on Tuesday due to my daughter's sugars being out of whack, so they have done really well by me and the family in other areas.  Course we have good insurance.  And paying cash for ketamine treatments for depression we were only two weeks waiting, which was shocking to me as ECT had been over two months waiting iirc for the first treatment (after that, we could get in the next day).  That is probably because Noetic is relatively new compared to University of Utah...plus there were people coming from out of state and even Canada for treatments.  I highly recommend both by the way if anyone is curious, though we just started with Noetic so need more time for a fair assessment.

If someone hasn't had experience with setting up their own doctor appts like many students haven't until they have left home, I can imagine being told they have to wait can be shocking.

Edited by Calm
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8 hours ago, Calm said:

In Kansas, I remember setting up doctors' appts, including a psychiatrist, months in anticipation though just going into a clinic was only a few hours wait, but no long term treatment was given there.  Now that could have been more just me planning ahead, it has been 30 years.  When we were up in Canada though, there were quite a few doctor appts we were waiting for 3 months to get into, including needing a CT scan due to daily vomiting and dizziness (that really pissed me off because it turned out the meds I was taking to keep from puking were what were causing it in the first place, rebound migraines of a version .I hadn't had before, I thought it was a sinus or ear infection and was taking decongestants) and then I got dumped by one doctor and refused to be taken back because they were overbooked just because I sought a second opinion, thankfully the second opinion doctor took me on though she was connected with a clinic so long, long waits even when scheduled appts...and then we would hear about how good we had it in Alberta compared to back east where people were dying before getting in for a cancer appt or to see a cardiologist, so I might be a bit more hardened to it than some here and see it as pretty typical everywhere when it might not be.  

Moving down to Utah this type of delay has happened only with the mental health doctors.  It was three to six months of being on waiting lists of all the therapists and psychiatrists I called for my daughter, so it is not something unique to BYU.  If she misses an appt with her UoU psychiatrist, it is a month and a half to get in for a replacement.  On the other hand, I got in the next day to a physical therapist a few weeks ago and it was only four days for an appt with the endocrinologist on Tuesday due to my daughter's sugars being out of whack, so they have done really well by me and the family in other areas.  Course we have good insurance.  And paying cash for ketamine treatments for depression we were only two weeks waiting, which was shocking to me as ECT had been over two months waiting iirc for the first treatment (after that, we could get in the next day).  That is probably because Noetic is relatively new compared to University of Utah...plus there were people coming from out of state and even Canada for treatments.  I highly recommend both by the way if anyone is curious, though we just started with Noetic so need more time for a fair assessment.

If someone hasn't had experience with setting up their own doctor appts like many students haven't until they have left home, I can imagine being told they have to wait can be shocking.

Psyciatrists especially have a notoriously long waiting time. Though I know that with some of the people I see who needed medical specialists the time wait can also be long. I understand why it's so long as there's few people who specialized in some of the needed fields of treatment they were seeking and may be the only ones in a large area. Even for me, I will hit a couple points during the year where I have to start holding off for clients. If I take more than the amount I know I'm comfortable working with, I know my effectiveness as a therapist will begin to slip as well.

Still, I understand the frustration with wait times. I watch the people who I know need help have to cope with their suffering and wait until they can get in to their allotted treatments. And I hate having to make others wait on my end as well.

 

With luv,

BD 

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9 hours ago, Calm said:

"Some common themes seen in these children were family fighting and social isolation. And this shows the importance of both family involvement in mental health treatment of children, as well as the importance of providing social activities," he said.

I find this line really important and it's a pet peeve of mine when managing childhood mental health concerns. Often times there is more need for family treatment and intervention that isn't getting met for one reason or another. So even with intensive in patient treatments for youth, one may get the child stable, only to have the work unravel once they're in the environment that cause them to emotionally spiral in the first place. Without proper treatment of the systems the child is involved with, the likelihood of returning symptoms remains fairly high. 

 

With luv,

BD

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4 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

Here's what I hear critics saying: 

- Bishops shouldn't meet with our kids one on one.
- There aren't near enough secular professionals out there to meet with our kids one on one. 

That strike anyone else as slightly problematic?

Not really.  Trained professionals are significantly different than lay clergy, imo.

I think having a variety of adults in their support system is good, not saying bishops shouldn't meet with youth and young adults; just that I understand why someone would be comfortable with professionals and not bishops.

Edited by Calm
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8 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

Here's what I hear critics saying: 

- Bishops shouldn't meet with our kids one on one.
- There aren't near enough secular professionals out there to meet with our kids one on one. 

That strike anyone else as slightly problematic?

I think you are using the word "kids" for two different purposes.  Here is what I hear:

 

- Bishops shouldn't meet with our kids children one on one.
- There aren't near enough secular professionals out there to meet with our kids college students (i.e. adults) one on one. 

 

I see a difference between the two.

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15 hours ago, Calm said:

When we were up in Canada though, there were quite a few doctor appts we were waiting for 3 months to get into, 

Just to note but to control costs it's reasonably common in Canada to limit certain services thereby leading to longer waits. There's also been well reported doctor shortages in some areas. Not saying there aren't perhaps good reasons for this to control costs. But there is a certain difference in approach. Arguably the US limits things too, just in a very much less egalitarian way.

15 hours ago, Calm said:

Moving down to Utah this type of delay has happened only with the mental health doctors.  It was three to six months of being on waiting lists of all the therapists and psychiatrists I called for my daughter, so it is not something unique to BYU.  

I was lucky at Mountainlands we got in within a few days. Although that was just for a consult rather than treatment or long term thing. Although they indicated that wouldn't have been a problem. As I said I don't think wait times mean much unless it's combined with what the wait is for as well as not indicating what the wait time at other facilities is. Again Mountainland does medicaid and also will do reduced or even free treatment in some cases of need. (According to their website anyway) Much of the debate in the press and social media unfortunately hasn't discussed these alternatives but sees the clinic as all that mattes. (I know you know that, just expressing my frustration again)

15 hours ago, Calm said:

And paying cash for ketamine treatments for depression we were only two weeks waiting, which was shocking to me as ECT had been over two months waiting iirc for the first treatment (after that, we could get in the next day).

I didn't know ketamine treatments were regularly being used. I know there have been quite a few questions the last year or two about their effectiveness. A lot of people think they've been very overhyped. It might just be the cognitive scientists and psychologists I follow in my Twitter science feed, but most have been pretty critical. How has your daughter worked out with the treatments?

15 hours ago, Calm said:

From the article that lost posted earlier...another 'common sense' approach that might be harmful may be restricting tech access. 

I think there's a difference between a parent taking away something (video game, iphone, etc.) and a person choosing to go on a fast from say social media. So we have to be careful how we interpret this. In the former case anger and frustration can get pathological especially with someone only loosely in control of themselves or out of balance hormonally or for other chemical reasons.

30 minutes ago, hoo rider said:

- Bishops shouldn't meet with our kids children one on one.
- There aren't near enough secular professionals out there to meet with our kids college students (i.e. adults) one on one. 

While most college students are 18-25, there are quite a few 17 and even 16 year olds. I remember when I was single I had a home teaching companion was 17 and a sophomore! Also speaking from experience therapists will often talk to kids one on one. We got a second opinion about a learning disability and behavioral issue problem from a therapist at Mountainlands. While part of it we were present for, part of it was one on one. So I do think there's a double standard. The justification some argue for the double standard is better training for therapists. But we shouldn't deny there's a double standard.

Interestingly these things vary. Utah County has a fantastic occupational therapy center for toddlers and preschool kids in Orem on 400 N. We were able to get in with no trouble and never had a wait. Then right about when we'd made about as much progress as we could expect suddenly so many people were trying to get in that there were huge waits. I'm not sure what lead to the change, but it was over the space of about two months. So even people saying there are waits can be misleading if it's just a temporary peak thing for unknown reasons. There's so much information in these stories missing which makes me distrust the reporting a great deal.

Edited by clarkgoble
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28 minutes ago, clarkgoble said:

There's also been well reported doctor shortages in some areas. Not saying there aren't perhaps good reasons for this to control costs. But there is a certain difference in approach.

Our friend who was a pediatric neurosurgeon eventually moved to the US.  He had a cap on his salary and basically worked for free the last quarter of every year because he wasn't going to say "no, going to let your kid die because the hospital won't pay me".  He was living in a very modest house and had a large family (6, maybe more kids iirc) and was concerned about being able to help his kids with missions and college costs.  A pediatric neurosurgeon having to worry about making ends meet...and a very good one from what I could tell.  Obviously not poverty level "ends", but firmly middle class. Blew my mind.

Canada also had a great program for getting doctors out to rural areas by subsidizing their student costs for a commitment of 5 years.  Win win for everyone for new doctors, not so good at holding on to the experienced specialists though.

Like most things, I see the best approach is likely a mix of how the US and Canada did things.  Love and hate aspects of both systems.  But that is unlikely to happen as both are firmly rooted in their way of doing things.  A disaster where they start over would have to happen, imo, and if it is that bad, not sure they will have the resources to even fix then.

Edited by Calm
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As I said I don't think wait times mean much unless it's combined with what the wait is for as well as not indicating what the wait time at other facilities is

For us, it had to do with those covered by our insurance.  Eventually we went with a therapist who was out of network but had members in her group covered and then we worked to get her in network, which happened.

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I didn't know ketamine treatments were regularly being used.

It is experimental and very overhyped depending on locations.  We only went for it because of a couple of trusted doctors being familiar with it and recommending the clinic as well as the UoU people reporting good results there, though not as good as the ECT and the magnetic targeting options...but side effects for that got too much for my daughter (memory loss).

I was 17 freshman year.

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Also speaking from experience therapists will often talk to kids one on one.

Kind of essential to do so in most cases where therapy is needed, imo, if only to see the variety in kids' behaviour when parents aren't around (some can be very dependent and passive when parents are there, but very independent and proactive when they are not, for example).

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suddenly so many people were trying to get in that there were huge waits

Probably a parent who was well connected in the parental support systems that get set up around disorders (and which are great mostly) raved about it.  :)

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There's so much information in these stories missing which makes me distrust the reporting a great deal.

Which is very concerning because it is such an important issue that we need to invest in to save lives and improve others.  And given the percentage of youth suicides that were in treatment prior to their deaths, it is obvious just access to treatment is not enough.

Edited by Calm
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14 minutes ago, Calm said:

For us, it had to do with those covered by our insurance.  Eventually we went with a therapist who was out of network but had members in her group covered and then we worked to get her in network, which happened.

Good point. Our one trip to Mountainland was covered by our SelectHealth insurance. I didn't think about whether there would be different wait times based upon type of insurance. Something else I hadn't considered yesterday was also that the ACA lets kids stay on their parents insurance until 26, meaning that a lot of BYU students are covered. Obviously not all insurances cover mental health. Most small group or individual plans do due to the changes with the ACA and there are parity laws for many insurances. I just don't know how out of state insurance works if your child is going to BYU though. The problem of insurance so often being tied to a single state or region remains a big one in the US.

18 minutes ago, Calm said:

Our friend who was a pediatric neurosurgeon eventually moved to the US.  He had a cap on his salary and basically worked for free the last quarter of every year because he wasn't going to say "no, going to let your kid die because the hospital won't pay me".  He was living in a very modest house and had a large family (6, maybe more kids iirc) and was concerned about being able to help his kids with missions and college costs.  A pediatric neurosurgeon having to worry about making ends meet...and a very good one from what I could tell.  Obviously not poverty level "ends", but firmly middle class. Blew my mind.

Yup a big problem. Canada was adjusting to this by importing a lot of immigrant doctors, but I think it's starting to reach a crisis point in many places there. They at minimum are just going to have to significantly increase salaries.

The problem of rural medicine is big in the US though as well. For the issues we're talking about here - mental health - it's even worse. There's typically few therapists, psychologists or psychiatrists in rural areas. So if you want treatment you have to drive to the cities that have them - often long drives. That can be prohibitive for the poor who tend to be disproportionately affected. I've wondered if part of the problem of suicide in rural America is tied to this problem.

My parents live in Mountain View where Cardston is the big town and Lethbridge, a small city, is an hour and a half away. They frequently have to drive to Calgary for doctors appointments. My mom had to wait six months for knee surgery. Here in Utah you could typically schedule that in a week. But of course it was largely free for them whereas I have a $3000 deductible. (Although after a $200,000 stay at the hospital for surgery this summer, only having to pay a total of $5000 for everything didn't seem that bad - especially when I was in within minutes)

18 minutes ago, Calm said:

It is experimental and very overhyped.  We only went for it because of a couple of trusted doctors being familiar with it and recommending the clinic as well as the UoU people reporting good results there, though not as good as the ECT and the magnetic targeting options...but side effects for that got too much for my daughter (memory loss).

Interesting. I knew one person who took it for mild symptoms and after one treatment they never had trouble again. But it honestly seemed like no one was sure about doses, repetition or so forth. Similar to some claims about mushrooms or LSD that have been hyped the past year.

I didn't know there were memory side effects to ketamine. I thought one of the benefits were few side effects.

18 minutes ago, Calm said:

Probably a parent who was well connected in the parental support systems that get set up around disorders (and which are great mostly) raved about it.  :)

Might have been us. LOL. A few of the people I saw there as we were winding down were from our ward.

Edited by clarkgoble
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28 minutes ago, clarkgoble said:

didn't know there were memory side effects to ketamine. I thought one of the benefits were few side effects.

Sorry wasn't clear, she stopped ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) because of memory loss.  Memory loss can occur with ketamine apparently, but much, much lower incidence I believe.  She is in her second week, third treatment so can't tell yet how much long term effect, plus her sugars have been awful (not due to the ketamine, but likely a different med started three months ago) which confuses results.  No side effects we can tell so far with the ketamine besides a little nausea for a few hours afterwards.  And she is having a lot of fun with it.  At the very least it is giving her some new experiences away from the house and showing trying something new doesn't always have to be hard.

 ECT was like a switch thrown for getting her out of deep depression after about a month of treatment 13 or 14 in total (depression for two years had bad enough I was asking if she had suicidal thoughts from the feel of darkness and despair that radiated from her...or rather the level of numbness she had withdrawn into), but it couldn't move her closer to 'normal', so she still isn't really very functional...hard to leave the house, has no energy or ability to push herself, but is in a decent mood comparatively speaking.  The ketamine may have no effect because what is happening now might be sleep disorder or diabetes or thyroid or something else we are unaware of.  But we figured worth it to try.  Incremental steps can make a big difference,

We may try the more targeted version of ECT (cant remember the name, magnetic something I think) if this doesn't help, less memory loss there but also less effective.

Edited by Calm
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On 12/6/2018 at 6:16 AM, bsjkki said:

LDS social Services was helpful and made timely referrals which helped a lot. We payed out of pocket and were able to get them in quickly. It cost over $400 a month...not something the average BYU student could afford. I’ve found most highly recommended therapists do not accept insurance.

And often a person needs multiple referrals to find one who can help.  It isn't because some aren't good.  People can have unique personalities that respond better to one therapist than another.  

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I'm finance clerk for my ward.  I write out, maybe almost a dozen or so checks to counselors for maybe 5-8 ward members a year.  

"Bishop's capacity to recognize when they're about to step into problems well past their knowledge-base" - I'm not sure what that even means.  I've clerked or exec.secretaried for 5 bishops now, I've heard all of them say "I don't know" at least once.

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On 12/6/2018 at 5:29 AM, bsjkki said:

The BYU student who attempted suicide on campus has died in the hospital. This incident highlighted an issue with long wait times for counseling appointments. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/12/05/woman-who-attempted/ 

After Monday’s incident, Brigham Young University students questioned wait times at the campus counseling center. The school said it will propose adding more therapists when its trustees meet in January. Currently, it has one counselor per 1,000 students.”

From the link within the link, “

Since the incident, several students have raised concerns about their attempts to seek counseling at the Provo school. They say the wait times are long, with some up to 10 weeks. When they do get in to see a therapist, they said, they can go a month or longer, between appointments. And if they wait too long into the semester, they’re turned away until the next term.

“I think the problem is BYU doesn’t allocate enough resources,” Payne said.

“They are understaffed, overbooked and no one can really get the help they need,” added Brigham Pitts, a freshman studying French. He recently waited three weeks to get an appointment and said his depression “definitely got worse” during that time.

The Deseret News takes a “there is nothing to see here” approach. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900045209/byu-student-dies-after-fall-deemed-suicide-from-campus-building.html

It always amazes me the different reporting on the same event.

I think it is news a student taped a letter to the counseling office door discussing wait times and a lack of follow up appointments. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/12/05/after-public-suicide/

Try being a veteran seeking help. Eye witnessing my son Armadosio going through that rope-a-dope gauntlet.

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2 hours ago, Bernard Gui said:

Try being a veteran seeking help. Eye witnessing my son Armadosio going through that rope-a-dope gauntlet.

I’m sorry. I think it is awful veterans need to wait for help or navigate a gauntlet to get the benefits they are owed because of their service to our country.

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Interesting new study about genetics and suicide. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900045707/university-of-utah-researchers-identify-4-gene-variants-linked-to-heightened-suicide-risk.html Variants in four genes — known as APH1B, AGBL2, SP110 and SUCLA2 — were identified as being noticeably associated with suicide risk, according to the study published in late October in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry.”

...”Among Utahns ages 10 to 17, the number of suicides were more than four times higherin 2017 than they were in 2007, according to data kept by the Utah Department of Health. The department also said this year that Utah teenagers are reporting increasing rates of depression and suicide attempts.”

 

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