[rumblerock]

My partner is now in private practice, but started in community mental health coming out of her social work program. Unsurprisingly, for those most in need, like the children with severe mental illnesses and traumatic family histories she worked with, the resources and funding available are woefully inadequate to meet the need. High caseloads, terrible pay, and a model that churns through new grads until they burn out and move on.

As much as she cared about the kids she worked with, private practice has been much better for her own mental health and allowed her to have a decent income. And even then, it seems extremely emotionally taxing to provide 4-6 hours of effective therapy per day.

[taurath]

Community MH is IMO functionally the same as the public defender system. We do not spend enough on resources to care for populations via this arena. In a ton of ways we treat mental healthcare the same as crime. I'm considering leaving software to go into the field as I have an extremely traumatic background and want to do more with my life, so the economics of it are very front of mind.