Hey there, I’m from Germany and have mental health issues such as depression and was wondering how prevalent this topic is in America.

Here in Germany this topic has become extremely normal and pretty much everyone seems to openly talk about it even with strangers sometimes. We have a lot of therapists but it’s often hard to get an appointment since medical care in Germany is free and they have overwhelming numbers of people and the therapists don’t have enough availability to accommodate everyone. The therapists I had so far were pretty good since they really seemed to care about me and often did overtime and such to talk.

I wonder if it’s similar in America that a lot of people go to therapy and openly talk about mental health. What is the situation in America like? Do you have many therapists (especially in rural areas) and how easy is it to get in/finance? Or would you say this topic is generally more frowned upon in America in comparison?

  • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    2 days ago

    not having enough therapists or having too many people who seek them

    Neither actually. The health insurances are allowed to decide amongst themselves how many therapists are covered. And this number hasn’t been adjusted (much) since 1999 even though demand has skyrocketed since then.

    Approximately 50% of therapists in Germany cannot accept public health insurance. Yet there is enough demand from the 10% of Germans with private health insurance ( + those who pay for therapy thenselves) to keep those therapists afloat.

    In other words:

    12.5% of Germans have been diagnosed with depression => 9.5 million people officially diagnosed which is certainly an underreported figure.

    There are ~24,000 therapists in Germany.

    As a result, there are 396 people with depression per therapist - meaning if every therapist worked 40 hours per week with 1 hour per client you’d have to wait 10 weeks between sessions.

    Now add all other mental illnesses which would require therapy and you’d get an even larger number.

    Sure, not everyone diagnosed with depression requires therapy. But this doesn’t excuse the obvious lack of paid therapists - which is openly acknowledged by the public health insurances but they are not legally required to change anything.