TherapySafetyNet

In 2007, I founded an organization called TherapySafetyNet to address the mental health needs of uninsured New Yorkers. I was receiving more inquiries than my practice could handle from uninsured people, many of them young artists. There simply was no place specifically designed to address the needs of the uninsured that would offer the quality of psychotherapy found in a private practice setting.

TherapySafetyNet has evolved into a coalition of socially responsible psychologists and social workers in private practice who work with uninsured clients on a sliding scale basis. Our free referral service has fielded inquiries from over 300 prospective clients and helped them find affordable psychotherapy either within our the private practices of our participating clinicians or by way of referrals to other community mental health services.

To mark our four-year anniversary in September 2011, TherapySafetyNet engaged in a self-study evaluation project to document what our coalition of socially responsible therapists has accomplished so far. The main finding was as follows:

“TherapySafetyNet has served a valuable role in metropolitan New York by assisting prospective clients in finding mental health services they can afford. Of the 300 outcomes recorded since 2007, we have referred 103 uninsured clients to participating psychologists and social workers in private practice at significantly reduced fees, thus connecting uninsured New Yorkers with psychotherapy of a quality that would otherwise be inaccessible and unaffordable.”

For more posts on this topic, see the TherapySafetyNet Category. For full details, including application for prospective uninsured clients and opportunities for professional membeship, visit TherapySafetyNet.org.