There's a rather long article piece over at ARD (public German TV, Channel One) which popped now after the Munster city attack over the weekend....discussing the serious nature of delayed mental health appointments in Germany. It's worth a read but fairly long.
What ARD points out is that waiting time for psychological treatment varies from state to state. In the Saarland, you could be waiting for 23.6 weeks before you get an appointment or get your foot in the front door. In Berlin, you could get that appointment in 13.4 weeks.
All of this waiting puts more and more folks on the borderline of serious and severe mental issues.
The blame game? Part of this can go back to insurance companies and their desire to control the patient situation.
In some cases, mental health experts look over a person's issue and then view the insurance company involved....knowing that X-treatment won't be covered, and Y-treatment will be covered....so the even after the guy waits months to get to the front door.....then the trouble starts up with the diagnosis and the treatment necessary. Once you determine he needs such-and-such treatment, well....if his insurance says no.....then you have to refer the guy to a treatment plan that they would accept but the likely outcome diminishes. He's basically faked into believing he has X-wrong with him and they will treat X.....but he really has Y.
This is where you start to be amused because the mentally disturbed Germans....with what they perceive is free healthcare.....are getting questionable healthcare in the end.
All of this tends to lead people with serious mental trouble to either self-medicate, or shut themselves off from society.
The guy in Munster? Based on journalist reports, I'd say he was pretty deep into mental issues and probably should have been in a permanent facility. But no one says much over his health insurance, the treatment plan, or where the authorities were standing on the guy.
I noticed one journalist talking over the Munster guy....that he had drug issues. My guess is that he came to discover some illicit drug gave him some relief, and stuck with the illegal drug to get him by. A real doctor, with the right health insurance company.....would have removed this path.
It's an amazing story, but best not to really discuss with a German.
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