The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-22)

ERIC PETERSEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

MENTAL HEALTH

Can’t stick to your

New Year’s g oals?

By now, 80 percent of us have quit our resolutions. It’s not just willpower. W e’ve been doing this all wrong, experts say.

KLMNO

HEalth&Science

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/HEALTH EE E

BY KATHERINE ELLISON

While seeking help for her teenage daugh- ter’s anxiety, Barbara Griswold says she called 73 doctors listed in her insurance plan’s net- work. Not one was available for an appointment within two months. Many never called back. Some had retired. Others weren’t taking insurance. Several weren’t seeing adolescents. Still others had disconnected numbers. And some had died. After three weeks of frustration, Griswold paid for an out-of-pocket appointment. It w as a textbook case of a “ghost n etwork”: a commonly used term by professionals for a panel of medical providers who for various reasons aren’t providing. Patients and doctors have been complaining about ghost, or “phan- tom” networks for more than 20 years. The

problem is particularly pernicious in mental health care, and by many accounts has gotten worse in recent years — and amid the mental health crises of the pandemic — as increasingly desperate callers get ghosted by a range of specialists. “For some individuals who are barely hold- ing on, one call is all they have,” says Heidi Strunk, c hief executive of Mental Health A meri- ca of California. “It’s taking everything they have to make that one call. So if someone isn’t answering, we lose the opportunity to help them and they sink deeper into their depres- sion. It’s no exaggeration to say lives have been lost because of this.” Griswold, herself a therapist, as well as an author of a therapists’ guidebook on insurance, chased her ghosts in 2012. To day, there are new efforts to address this issue. SEE NETWORKS ON E6

How ‘ghost networks’ of providers

hamper our needs for assistance

BY KATHERINE KAM

Emily Sandoz, a psychologist in Louisiana, has witnessed clients’ grueling struggles during the pandemic. Many said they felt trapped and deprived of their usual ways of coping. Others began therapy for the first time after the pause in their busy lives forced some existential questions: “Do any of these things that I used to put all this energy into even matter? Does my job even matter? Do my relationships matter?” Then, she said, her clients felt guilty. “I know that this has been stressful for everyone, but.. .” “I just feel like I should be able to handle this.” “I know what I need to do, but I’m just not doing it.” It’s natural to feel distress during such a harrowing time, Sandoz tells them, but even in the midst of inevitable pain and hardship, people can still live meaningful lives aligned with their highest values. Sandoz provides a form of behavioral therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT. Psychologists consider it a third-wave therapy after traditional behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Infused with mindfulness concepts, ACT acknowledges that suffering is part of the human condition and guides people in be- coming “psychologically flexible” to navigate life’s ups and downs and keep moving for- ward. “Traditionally, most people think about SEE THERAPY ON E5

Despite woes,

a meaningful

life is possible

BY ERIN BLAKEMORE

Alicia Lee learned early on that her child’s mental health disorder did not respect working hours. Supporting her 13-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyper- activity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and other conditions, involves therapy appointments, paperwork, case coordina- tion, medication, and lots and lots of time on the phone. “I have to do all that during therapists’ hours,” she says. “Basic 9 to 5.” For millions of caretakers around the country, a child’s mental health crisis can rapidly become a problem at work. Now, new research suggests that a greater number of working parents have children with mental health challenges than previously known — and that their work lives are profoundly affected by the demands of children in crisis. A new report from On Our Sleeves, a national advocacy and education organization based at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, shows the depth of the problem. It’s t he latest point in a growing pile of research on the challenges working parents face because of their children’s mental health, and the potential consequences for employers who don’t offer the flexibility and support they need.

Disruptions to work lives The organization asked nearly 5,500 working adults questions about their children’s SEE CHILDREN ON E6

Parents strain

to juggle kids

and their jobs

WEIGHT CARDS Some patients are asking their doctor’s office not to weigh them. E3

EXERCISE Working out is an effective way to manage mental health. E5

SEE RESOLUTIONS ON E4

BY STEVEN PETROW

It’s that time again — the February day by which approximately 80 percent of us, according to one estimate, will have abandoned our New Year’s resolutions — whether we vowed to lose weight, stop drinking, learn to meditate or start exercising. ¶ Do we completely lack the willpower to make better choices? No, says Wendy Wood, provost professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California. Wood’s research tells us that more of our behavior is about habit than conscious choice. ¶ Habits aren’t just about hanging your coat by the door or putting on your seat belt in the car, Wood says. Forty-three percent of our behaviors are habit driven — such as when we brush our teeth, what we eat for breakfast, which cocktail we pour in the evening. No surprise, these automatic, unthinking actions are difficult to change.