Vol. 34, No. 3, 60. Your Health.

• Author: by John Dolores, J.D., Ph.D. Director, Behavioral Health Services Cheyenne Regional Medical Center

Wyoming Bar Journal

2011.

Vol. 34, No. 3, 60.

Your Health

Wyoming Bar JournalIssue: June, 2011Your Healthby John Dolores, J.D., Ph.D. Director, Behavioral Health Services Cheyenne Regional Medical CenterPsychotherapy: Not Just for Chronic Mental Illness

Mental health treatment exists on a continuum, from the most intense, highly structured treatment to low frequency, occasional contact with a mental health provider. Inpatient mental health treatment provides that rigorous structure that is required at the most intense end of the continuum. Inpatient treatment is required for patients who are unable to maintain their own safety or the safety of others around them. Inpatient treatment is also often utilized for patients with debilitating mental illnesses, such as severe depression and psychotic disorders. When people think of mental illness, these types of patients and inpatient treatment commonly come to mind. This line of thinking has resulted in the well-known stigma that people have toward mental illness. Stigma is a problem for many reasons. In particular, stigma prevents people from seeking the treatment that they need as well as contributes to patients' increased difficulty in recovery. The mental health profession has slowly been working to counteract the stigma against mental illness and has made some positive progress over the past decades. For example, changes in healthcare have led insurance companies to provide more options and plans for psychiatric coverage.

However, one of the many damaging results of the stigma against mental illness is the negative portrayal of all mental health treatment. As discussed previously, mental health treatment is a continuum and the stigma, which arose from patients dealing with severe and persistent mental illnesses, was generalized to all patients seeking mental health treatment. Outpatient mental health treatment has garnered the same negative stigma that inpatient treatment has, despite the fact that outpatient treatment is for a variety of issues that anyone may...