Annual Mental Health Checkups: ‘This Is A Game Changer’

UPDATE The "game" changed back in 2012!

The headline was "Soldiers seeking routine medical care now get PTSD screening as well"

There were 63,000 soldiers who went to the doctor for all kinds of things and during the checkup, they tested positive for mental health problems!

First-Of-Its-Kind Bill Would Cover Annual Mental Health Checkups: ‘This Is A Game Changer’

CBS News Denver
By Shaun Boyd
January 29, 2020

“Rather than dealing with an epidemic of opioid addiction and alcoholism, we’ll be dealing with these issues at the primary care level where they are much less expensive,” said Larson.

DENVER (CBS4) – Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet has a radical idea: to make mental health care just as routine and relevant as physical health care.

“This is a game changer. This is history.”

She says mental health care is currently crisis management.

“Imagine you go to your doctor, and your doctor says ‘Hey your blood pressure is up. Give me a call when you have a heart attack.’ That is how the behavioral health care system is set up right now.”

Michaelson Jenet introduced a bill with Rep. Colin Larson that would change the system, starting with annual mental health checkups covered by insurance just like annual physicals. If it passes, it would be the first law of its kind in the country.

The lawmakers say the goal of the bill is to identify and treat mental health issues before they’re in a crisis. Just as a physical screens for things like high cholesterol, a mental health checkup would screen for things like depression.

“Rather than dealing with an epidemic of opioid addiction and alcoholism, we’ll be dealing with these issues at the primary care level where they are much less expensive,” said Larson.

The bill would also give people a primary care provider to turn to if they do find themselves in crisis.
read it here