Mental Health Insurance

Despite public awareness campaigns highlighting the issues facing people with mental health problems and the fact that no one is immune to developing a mental illness, people with mental health problems are still facing unfair discrimination, prejudice and stigma every day of their lives, not just from members of the public but also from businesses, banks, employers and even when it comes to taking out an insurance policy.

The truth is, any one of us can develop a mental illness, regardless of our age, gender, location, occupation or social status. Actually, the statistics show that at least one in four of us will experience some kind of mental health problem in the space of any one year. Mental health problems can be hugely diverse in nature and can range from mild cases of depression and anxiety to more serious cases of bipolar depression and schizophrenia with the types of symptoms and the degree of intensity of these symptoms varying from person to person. However, there are problems to face in the outside world too.

Mental Health

Possibly one of the most distressing aspects of mental illness is the isolation and social exclusion often experienced by the sufferer purely as a result of ignorance and misunderstanding on the part of other people and it is this that needs to change. If we consider insurance for example, something that most people take for granted, but not if you have had a mental illness in the past or are suffering from a mental health problem at the moment.

The findings of a major report on discrimination against the mentally ill showed that Insurance companies will often deny insurance or place exemptions on an insurance policy when there is a history of mental health problems, even if those problems existed many years ago and are no longer an issue. This applies to any type of insurance and not just life insurance either, travel insurance, mortgage insurance, employment insurance, payment protection insurance, all become more difficult to obtain if you have a mental health problem or a history of mental illness.

This would appear to suggest that insurance companies as well as many others still do not understand the issues or the facts surrounding mental illness or the information just isn't getting through. For example, mental health problems can occur as an isolated case in relation to a specific set of circumstances and once treated, will never happen again, some types of mental illness are episodic in nature, and most people who seek help for mental health problems do go on to lead full and normal lives. Probably the most important point is that just because someone is suffering from a mental health problem doesn't automatically mean they pose a greater risk than anyone else. Insurance companies calculate their insurance premiums on the level of perceived risk, which is supposedly based on medical evidence. Perhaps this is the area that needs to be addressed.

So what can you do about it? Certainly, if there is a case of unfair discrimination then it is possible to sue under the Disability Discrimination Act but according to Mind, the leading UK charity for mental health, only a small number of cases are taken out under this Act and of these, few are ever successful. Similarly, the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) report that most claims against payment protection insurance fail when mental illness is involved as it is a common exclusion in many insurance policies.

It isn't all doom and gloom though, people do seem to be waking up to the fact that something has gone wrong somewhere and that people with mental illness deserve to have the same rights as anyone else. Over in the USA for example, a study by the Mental Health America Association found that the majority of Americans believe that people with mental health problems should no longer be subjected to discrimination by health insurance companies. In fact, some 96% of Americans believe that health insurance should also cover mental health. Here in the UK the government are aware of the issues surrounding mental health and exclusion and are tightening up legislation to protect people from unfair discrimination.

In the meantime, we would all do well to remember that mental health problems are not only common, they are treatable, and can affect any one of us at any time. Until we insist that people with mental health problems receive the same rights in society as everyone else, the problem with insurance will persist.

Mental Health Insurance

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Suffering With Mental Health Issues

One in four Americans suffers from some type of mental health issue. It can range from depression to anxiety and anything in between. Whatever kind of mental health issues a person suffers from, it can become debilitating and make it impossible to do day to day activities. The good news is help is available you just have to seek it out.

Mental health issues can be temporary or permanent. For example, someone going through a particular situation that is really stressing them out may suffer from panic attacks. These panic attacks because they are caused by a specific situation may go away after the situation has resolved itself.

Mental Health

Other people have more long term problems that may be caused by a chemical imbalance or more stressful situations from childhood. Regardless of if your mental health problems are permanent or temporary they most likely cause you difficulties in life and need to be managed.

One of the biggest issues in mental health today is people who suffer from depression. Depression can be totally debilitating. It can make it impossible to get out of bed in the morning and do what you need to do. It can make it hard to keep relationships in tact and to do your work. It begins to creep into every aspect of your life and if left untreated can have terrible consequences such as suicide.

This is why you have to seek out help. You have to get your mind back to a healthy place and that is not always something you can do on your own. Once you deal with the immediate effects of your mental health issues there are many things you can do to keep your mind healthier in general and avoid depression.

A clear mind is more effective at decision making and allows you to be able to cope and get through situations without them turning into a mental health emergency. Most mental health issues start as a result of stress when you have a clear mind and can think things through and make good choices you are less likely to have stress that you are unable to manage.

If you are currently having issues managing your stress you should talk to a professional. There are also other things you can do to help you think more clearly. Brain games or brain training activities can go a long way in giving you a healthy mind. A healthy mind is far better equipped to manage stress and make good decisions.

Suffering With Mental Health Issues

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Where to Get Affordable Mental Health Insurance

Mental health insurance is a fairly new type of insurance. As recently as ten years ago, most insurers offered little if any coverage for mental health problems. Now, many states require that insurance companies include some form of mental health insurance coverage as part of their health insurance policies. Here's how to get affordable mental health insurance.

What Does Mental Health Insurance Cover?

Mental Health

Mental health insurance coverages vary widely among insurance companies. Most insurance companies cover problems such as

* Anxiety

* Depression

* Relationship difficulties

* Social phobias

They typically do not cover alternative therapies such as aromatherapy, nor do they cover therapy related to gender change.

Insurance companies typically allow around 20 to 30 sessions with a mental health professional per year, paying anywhere from 50-80 percent of the bill.

Selecting a Mental Health Insurance Policy

Whether you're looking for an insurance policy that just covers mental health or a policy that includes both physical and mental health coverage, your best option for finding an affordable policy is to shop around. Go to an insurance comparison website and get quotes from multiple A-rated companies that you can compare. As you compare the policies, look for whether the policy:

* Requires a referral from your primary care physician or employee assistance program.

* Includes a preferred list of providers and hospitals you must choose from and what the financial consequences are if you choose someone else.

* Includes a separate annual deductible for mental health services.

* Pays for office visits, medication, respite care, outpatient hospital care, and inpatient hospital care and what the co-payments are for these services.

* Limits your number of visits.

* Excludes certain diagnoses or pre-existing conditions.

* Includes an annual or lifetime cap for mental health coverage.

Where to Get Affordable Mental Health Insurance

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Combine Physical and Mental Exercise For Brain Health - Interview With Dr Kramer

Dr. Arthur Kramer is a Professor in the University of Illinois Department of Psychology, the Campus Neuroscience Program, the Beckman Institute, and the Director of the Biomedical Imaging Center at the University of Illinois.

I am honored to interview him today about recent brain research findings focused on how to maintain a healthy, strong brain.

Mental Health

Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Dr. Kramer, thank you for your time. Let's start by trying to clarify some existing misconceptions and controversies. Based on what we know today, and your recent Nature piece (Note: referenced below), what are the 2-3 key lifestyle habits would you suggest to a person who wants to delay Alzheimer's symptoms and improve overall brain health?

Dr. Kramer (DK): First, Be Active. Do physical exercise. Aerobic exercise, 30 to 60 minutes per day 3 days per week, has been shown to have an impact in a variety of experiments. And you don't need to do something strenuous: even walking has shown that effect. There are many open questions in terms of specific types of exercise, duration, magnitude of effect...but, as we wrote in our recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience article, there is little doubt that leading a sedentary life is bad for our cognitive health. Cardiovascular exercise seems to have a positive effect.

Second, Maintain Lifelong Intellectual Engagement. There is abundant prospective observational research showing that doing more mentally stimulating activities reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's symptoms.

Let me add, given all media hype, that no "brain game" in particular has been shown to have a long-term impact on Alzheimer's or the maintenance of cognition across extended periods of time. It is too early for that-and consumers should be aware of that fact. It is true that some companies are being more science-based than others but, in my view, the consumer-oriented field is growing faster than the research is.

Ideally, combine both physical and mental stimulation along with social interactions. Why not take a good walk with friends to discuss a book? We lead very busy lives, so the more integrated and interesting activities are, the more likely we will do them.

AF: Great concept: a walking book club! Now, part of the confusion we observe is due to the search of "magic solutions" that work for everyone and everything. We prefer to talk about several pillars of brain health, and different priorities for different individuals. Can you elaborate on what interventions seem to have a positive effect on specific cognitive abilities and individuals?

DK: Perhaps one day we will be able to recommend specific interventions for individuals based on genetic testing, for example, but we don't have a clue today. We are only beginning to understand how the environment interacts with our genome.

But I agree on the premise that there probably won't be a general solution that solves all cognitive problems, but we need a multitude of approaches. And we can't forget, for example, the cognitive benefits from smoking cessation, sleep, pharmacological interventions, nutrition, social engagement.

Physical exercise tends to have rather broad effects on different forms of perception and cognition, as seen in the Colcombe and Kramer, 2003, meta-analysis published in Psychological Science (Note: referenced below).

Cognitive training also works for a multitude of perceptual and cognitive domains - but has shown little transfer beyond trained tasks.

No single type of intervention is sufficient. Today there is no clear research on how those different lifestyle factors may interact. The National Institute on Aging is starting to sponsor research to address precisely that.

AF: To wrap up, what's in your mind the best way to explain the relative benefits of physical vs. cognitive exercise? From a fundamental point of view, it seems clear that physical exercise can help enhance neurogenesis (Note: the creation of new neurons), yet learning/ cognitive exercise contributes to the survival of those neurons by strengthening synapses, so I see more how those two "pillars" are complimentary than "one or the other".

DK: I agree. Given what we know today I would recommend both intellectual engagement and physical exercise. However, we do know, from a multitude of animal studies, that physical exercise has a multitude of effects on brains beyond neurogenesis, including increases in various neurotransmitters, nerve grown factors, and angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels).

AF: Dr. Kramer, many thanks for your time.

DK: You are welcome.

Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains

Combine Physical and Mental Exercise For Brain Health - Interview With Dr Kramer

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Does My 2-3 Year Old Need to See a Mental Health Professional?

Unfortunately some children have behavioral and/or developmental problems that make it very challenging on a family. Many parents are left with the question, is it time that I bring my 2-3 year old to a behaviorist, therapist, or psychiatrist? The aim of this article is to help she some light on that answer.

Some of the things to consider is whether or not your 2-3 year old is meeting the age -appropriate milestones. For a child of the age of 2, this means that your child should be able to feed himself/herself, can say several hundred words, and his/her motor skills are such that a child is able to move around considerably.

Mental Health

Behaviorally, it is quite typical for a 2 year old to literally throw his/herself on the ground and tantrum, yell, kick his/her feet, stomp on the ground, and from time to time hit others. It is also normal for a 2 year old to have an extremely short attention span and switch from one thing to the next in a matter of seconds. Usually, when a 2 year old doesn't want to socialize with other, often resorts to biting, kicking, and tantruming, and can only say a couple of words, may need to be seen by a professional.

3 year olds can do a whole lot more than he or she could at the age of 2. At this point in the toddlers life he/she can take care of most hygiene and feeding routines with guidance. Since there are more words developed in the vocabulary of a 3 year old, he or she usually has a higher frustration tolerance than before.

If you find that your 3 year old fails to show any remorse during the majority of his or her aggressive actions, or your 3 year old is particular cruel to animals, this can be a sign of needing to seek help. Finally, even though a 3 year old has a long attention span, if he or she is unable to sit still for longer than a few minutes at a time and hear simple 1 step directions (i.e. sit, stand up, lay down, walk, etc), then you may want to consider looking for help outside the home.

Do you want to learn exactly how to eliminate your child's out-of-control and defiant behavior without using Punishments, Time-Outs, Behavioral Plans, or Rewards?

Does My 2-3 Year Old Need to See a Mental Health Professional?

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When is it Time to Bring My 3-4 Year Old to a Qualified Mental Health Professional?

Many challenges arise with typically developing 3-4 year olds. So many parents ask, how do you know when it is time to seek professional help for my child? The aim of this article is to help parents determine when it is appropriate for the parent to seek professional help.

There are couple of things you can pay attention to in order to see if you 3-4 year old needs help from a mental health professional. One of the first things to look for is if your 3-4 year old is constantly tantruming for more than 90% of the things he/she wants or needs from a parent. Also, if you 3-4 year old is in danger of hurting himself/herself, or other, this is usually an indicator of needing professional help.

Mental Health

Another thing to look for, in terms of your 3-4 year old possibly needing help, is too watch for the development of physical symptoms (i.e. headaches, vomiting, and difficulty breath, swallowing, or sleeping). If your 3-4 year old wasn't having any problems with these things and then all of the sudden these are now issues, it is important to check for medical reasons that may be causing your child's behavioral issues.

The third thing to look out for is if your 3-4 year old is constantly putting himself/herself in danger, threatening others, and/or attempting to destroy things on a regular basis. Using these strategies above as a way to cope or problem solve for the majority of the time may be an indicator of something going on emotionally.

Ultimately, believe your institution if you feel that something is not right. It is better to have made the necessary attempts to get the help that you need than to watch things progressively get worse and worse.

Do you want to learn exactly how to eliminate your child's out-of-control and defiant behavior without using Punishments, Time-Outs, Behavioral Plans, or Rewards?

When is it Time to Bring My 3-4 Year Old to a Qualified Mental Health Professional?

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How to Use Turmeric Extract to Protect Your Health and Mental Well Being

There's no doubt about it, turmeric can help to prevent many deadly diseases including cancer as long as you take it correctly. Once you know how to use turmeric properly, you can reap the many health rewards.

The actual health giving properties come from the active ingredient called curcumin. This pigment gives it its characteristic yellow colour and bitter taste.

Mental Health

It has been shown to have great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities that help to keep you healthy. The list of conditions it can help with include preventing cancer in all stages, treatment for type 2 diabetes, effective for arthritis and help in treating and preventing Alzheimer's.

If you know how to use turmeric properly, you can reap all the health rewards.

The important thing is not to use turmeric on its own as the body struggles to absorb it. When combined in a nutritional supplement for example with piperine from black pepper, absorption rates soar to give you the maximum benefits.

You also benefit from the synergistic mix of many other nutrients and some others that combine well include ginkgo biloba, green tea and olive leaf extract.

The next important factor is an enteric coating to ensure the contents are not released in the stomach where the benefits will be lost but in the upper intestine. This also avoids any potential digestive discomfort and means you can take them anytime.

As regards dosage, if you get the above things right, you can get the most from this spice by having 50mg a day of pure curcumin extract at a purity of 98% in a multi supplement.

One of the more interesting turmeric benefits I found during my research was how it has been shown to help you stay sharp as you get older, and with half of us predicted to get some form of dementia, this is vitally important.

Studies with turmeric and mental health reveal its special anti-inflammatory qualities help to keep you sharp and the reason why it is so effective in treating degenerative brain conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Now you know how to use turmeric extract to gain the maximum benefits and just how many different conditions it can help with. It's no wonder it has been used for centuries in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine and it great to see that here in the West we are finally catching up.

If you would like to learn more about the nutritional supplements I personally take that contain turmeric extract, visit my website below.

How to Use Turmeric Extract to Protect Your Health and Mental Well Being

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