Excerpt from Chapter 12: Costs of Treatment: Money, Energy, and Time
Raising and caring for your child has many costs, financial and otherwise. Given the present-day financial costs of mental health care, and the daily demands on parents' emotional and time resources, it's no wonder that providing proper treatment for a child can be a major challenge for parents. I hope the material in this chapter prepares you for the anticipated and unanticipated costs of having your child in treatment.
Knowing about these different costs can help you prepare to meet the outlay of money, energy, and time associated with getting the professional treatment needed to help your child or adolescent get back on track.
Organization of Chapter 12
I focus first on the financial costs of treatment with different specialists and with various medications (when not covered by insurance). I then examine the other kinds of costs involved in treatment: your emotional energy and time. These are mainly connected to the treatment experience, but also to dealing with the insurance and managed care companies. I end with attention to the costs of non-treatment—of doing nothing. These costs are harder to calculate. I look at this issue from the perspective of a parent with a child needing treatment and of a tax-paying member of society in which many children need treatment.
More excerpts:
- From the Introduction
- From the Introduction to Section I, Parents' Interventions
- From Chapter 1: What to Do When You Think Your Child Has a Problem
- From Chapter 2: The Red Flags
- From Chapter 4: Ten Steps to Help Your Child Get Back on Track
- From Chapter 5: Coping with Your Feelings When Your Child Suffers
- From the Introduction to Section II: Professional Interventions
- From Chapter 6: Evaluation and Testing, Why, What, Who, and Where?
- From Chapter 7: Questions about the Helpers: Who Are They and Where Are They?
- From Chapter 8: Psychotherapy and Its Side Effects
- From Chapter 9: Medications and Their Side Effects
- From Chapter 11: The Role of Play in Individual Psychotherapy From Childhood to Adolescence
- From Chapter 12: Costs of Treatment: Money, Energy, and Time