Consumer Information

Information for Consumers

As a consumer of mental health services, you and your family have the right to quality care delivered with respect and competence. CCPS actively works with regional mental health consumer advocacy organizations to help shape the policies of public and private institutions to assure quality care for people who have mental illness. We also maintain a list of answers to frequently asked questions about mental health care.

Several organizations exist which provide help for consumers seeking care in our service area. We encourage you to contact one or more of these organizations if you are having trouble getting the information and services you need.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Sacramento

  • NAMI Sacramento Web Site
  • Phone: 916 874-9416
  • Fax: 916 875-5807
  • Address: 3701 Branch Center Rd., Room 213C, Sacramento, CA 95827
  • Note: Office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. weekdays. Please call before visiting.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-California

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

FAQs

The Profession

What is the difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a therapist, a counselor, etc.?

Psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors. After premedical courses in college, they go to the same medical schools as other physicians and surgeons, take the exact same coursework, and are awarded the same MD or DO degree. Psychiatrists then go on to get specialty training for four years after medical school.Because psychiatrists are fully trained as medical doctors before they obtain specialty training in psychiatry, they are granted prescription-writing privileges by state and federal governments. Their specialty training also includes extended training in psychotherapy, so a psychiatrist might treat patients with medications, with talk therapy, or with a combination of both.Psychologists follow a different training track. They receive a PhD or PsyD degree from a college or university, and get several years of psychotherapy training in clinical settings. They also receive special training in administering and interpreting psychological testing instruments. Psychologists are not physicians, and are neither trained nor permitted to prescribe medications.There are other types of training in psychotherapy. Many social workers and marriage/family counselors have some psychotherapy training.

Mental health is very personal. How do psychiatrists preserve confidentiality?

Psychiatry has a long tradition of respecting the privacy of individuals and the doctor-patient relationship. There are guidelines published by the American Psychiatric Association which spell out in some details the ways in which a psychiatrist should protect patient-related information.There is always pressure to dilute the strength of the therapist-patient privilege. For example, if you expect a third party, such as an insurance company or HMO, to pay for therapy, they will probably expect, in return, that your therapist provide them with some information about your diagnosis, treatment, and progress. Confidentiality is also limited by law (psychiatrists in California are required to report threats made against specific persons by patients) and by ethics (most psychiatrists will disclose personal information if it is necessary to prevent an acutely ill patient from deliberately harming self or others.)

Definitions

Patients? Consumers? Who are we?

Psychiatrists get their training in a medical environment where those seeking services are generally referred to as "patients." Other types of therapists often refer to the people they treat as "clients." Because one person might receive care from more than one discipline (eg. therapy from a psychologist and medications from a psychiatrist), organizations which provide mental health services will often refer to "consumers" to indicate a person receiving mental health services, whether from a physician, a counselor, or both.

What is psychotherapy?

There are many kinds of psychotherapy, and coming up with a single definition is tricky. In general, however, psychotherapy involves using an expressive medium -- usually language -- to explore one's thoughts and feelings with the goal of increasing understanding and mastery of them.

Patients? Consumers? Who are we?

Psychiatrists get their training in a medical environment where those seeking services are generally referred to as "patients." Other types of therapists often refer to the people they treat as "clients." Because one person might receive care from more than one discipline (eg. therapy from a psychologist and medications from a psychiatrist), organizations which provide mental health services will often refer to "consumers" to indicate a person receiving mental health services, whether from a physician, a counselor, or both.

Is that the same thing as psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a specific type of psychotherapy, perhaps the mode most commonly stereotyped by the Freudian psychiatrist with the patient on a couch. There are many other kinds of psychotherapy.

HMO, PPO, MCO, oh my!

There was a time when medicine was delivered the same way as other services: you simply paid your doctor for the services you received. Health insurance began to be offered by employers during World War II, when salaries were frozen by law and corporations had to find other enticements to hire or keep key employees. Soon it became commonplace for people to have health insurance and receive reimbursement for most of the cost of health care.With consumers insulated from the effect of rising costs, health care became increasingly expensive. In an attempt to control costs (or, for the cynical, capture profits) from these escalating costs, managed care organizations (MCOs) were formed. They are largely based on the concept of capitation: paying a health care provider a fixed amount of money to take care of a patient's health care needs.Under the old fee for service system, doctors had a financial incentive to provide more care. Under managed care, the financial incentive is to provide less.The original MCO was a health maintenence organization (HMO), where the physicians are either employed by or under contract with the insurer. A preferred provider organization (PPO) is sort of a hybrid -- patients can go to a physician who is not under contract with the insurer, but the patient's out of pocket expenses will be higher.

Managed Care

I am in an HMO (or PPO or MCO). How can I get mental health services?

Start by contacting your employer or insurance company. Under California's mental health parity laws (see below), certain conditions must be treated by the same rules as any other covered medical condition. (This contrasts with past practice, where treatments for mental illnesses were sometimes excluded or severely limited simply because these biologically-based conditions were traditionally classified as "mental" instead of "physical.") Your insurer is required to provide you with access to a specific mental health practitioner appropriate for treatment of your condition -- not just a list of names.

What do you mean by "parity"?

In late 2000, the California legislature passed a law (Assembly Bill 88) that required insurers to cover treatment of certain mental illness on the same terms that they treat diseases outside the brain. This means that they could no longer charge different copayments or place more strict limits on treatment of certain diseases simply on the grounds that they were brain diseases traditionally treated by psychiatrists.

I think I am being denied care by my health insurance company. What can I do?

Managed care companies in California are regulated by the Department of Managed Health Care, a unit of the state Business, Transportation & Housing Agency. They are a complaint-driven organization -- if you don't report problems with your managed care company, they won't be able to fix them. In addition to their Web Site, they have a toll-free number: (888) HMO-2219

Membership Surveys

Thank you for coming to the 2014 CCPS Annual Meeting, and for participating in these surveys. This is your opportunity to inform the Annual Meeting and CME Committee of your educational needs, so that we are able to plan the best speakers for the most relevant topics that will make a difference in your practice of medicine and psychiatry. While you have the option of not completing any question, please know that access of these surveys will be limited to the Annual Meeting, CME Committee and Spirituality and Religion Committee members only, and individual information will not be distributed outside of these committees.

Note that some of the information is duplicated in both surveys. Please take the time to fill each of them in similar fashion. Please fill out each survey only once.

CCPS CME Mission Statement

The CCPS CME Committee, as a functioning committee of CCPS, has as its goal the provision of educational activities which will serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide service for patients, the public and/or the profession.

Committee on Spirituality and Religion

The CCPS Spirituality and Religion Committee recognizes the religious and spiritual diversity of its members and the patients whom they serve. The purpose of this survey is to investigate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of our members regarding spiritual and religious aspects in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric patients. Sincerely, David Gellerman, M.D., Ph.D. Chair, Committee on Spirituality and Religion

Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatric Practice Survey

Helpful Links

CCPS provides the following information to the general public to assist them in answering their questions about mental health issues and mental healthcare. The links are provided as a convenience and do not imply endorsement. CCPS is not responsible for content provided on websites hosted by organizations outside CCPS and does not guarantee the accuracy of the information they contain.

COVID-19 Coronavirus News and Information

Below are links to information and resources from national, state and local health organizations to help you stay up-to-date on safe in this unique and difficult time. 

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) - https://www.cdc.gov/

California Department of Public Health (CDPH) - https://www.cdph.ca.gov/

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom - https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/press-releases/

Health & Human Services COVID-19 HIPPA Updates - https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/emergency-preparedness/index.html

DEA COVID-19 Telemedicine Updates - https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/coronavirus.html

Dept. of HHS - MEDICARE TELEMEDICINE HEALTH CARE FACT SHEET - 3.17.2020

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) - MEDICARE TELEHEALTH WAIVER FAQ's - 3.17.2020

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) - Expanded Telehealth Benefits for Medicare Beneficiaries Press Release - 3.17.2020

INFORMATION FROM THE APA:

AMA Phsyician's Guide to COVID-19

AMA COVID-19 FAQ's