Healing A Broken Mental Health System: Dr Michael Grey Of Grey Insight On 5 Things That Can Be Done To Fix Our Broken Mental Health System
An Interview With Stephanie Greer
Policies/Procedures in place that prevent outrageous quotas, and workload. I have seen many therapists who have caseloads of 60+ people, and they aren’t seeing these patient’s weekly, however they must juggle fitting all these people in, which is not doable, and hurts the patient in the long run.
The current state of the mental health system is a conversation that echoes in the halls of policy-making, the corners of social advocacy, and within the private struggles of individuals and families. As we continue to witness an unprecedented need for robust mental health support, the shortcomings of the existing system become more glaring. It is within this backdrop that we seek the insight of those who are at the forefront of behavioral health. In this interview series, we are talking to behavioral health leaders, policymakers, mental health practitioners, advocates, and reformers to share their perspectives on healing our broken mental health system. As a part of this interview series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Michael Grey, PsyD, LMFT.
Dr. Michael Grey is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of CA, FL, & NV, and is the owner of Grey Insight. Dr. Grey is a trauma therapist who specializes in Sexual and Gender Minority Mental Health including BDSM/Kink, LGBTQ+, CNM/Poly Relational constructs, and Sex Workers. Dr. Grey’s clinical experience includes working in diverse setting such as non-profit, community mental health, agencies, and private practice. Outside of therapy Dr. Grey is a graduate professor, developing and educating future clinicians to provide more affirmative care to marginalized communities.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?
What would you like to know? I had a very tumultuous childhood causing me to grow up quickly, and have spent many years unlearning, and addressing my own mental health. I have experienced first-hand how broken the system has been, with a care giver who was diagnosed with mental illness, and not receiving the support they should have.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Do no harm but take no shit.” As a person I try every day to make a conscious effort to be a good person to my fellow humans, and as a provider I always try to be the best provider my patients need. However, this resonates with me, as a reminder than just because I always try to be kind, and gentle, that doesn’t mean I allow someone to mistreat me, abuse me, or harm me both physically or mentally.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. It is often said that “the mental health system in America is broken”. What does that statement mean to you? From your perspective what is “broken” today?
There are a lot of issues within the field of mental health, it’s one of the reasons why I left organizations and went into private practice. The first major issue is we have allowed insurance to dictate everything. For people to get covered by insurance they must have a diagnosis, which follows people throughout their life, and in some instances can prevent people from getting jobs, etc. Not only that, it also doesn’t align with ethical guidelines, and when people use insurance, it puts therapists in situations where they have to quickly pathologize a person, which at times can be the wrong diagnosis. Pay within the field is also disheartening, there is this weird concept, and therapists are often told “You don’t go into this field for the money” which is an odd thought process. At minimum you need a master’s degree, and for some of us we go to get a doctorate degree, and at times our career is weaponized against us with people exploiting us by saying “well don’t you care about helping people?” Yes, we do, we also shouldn’t have to get three jobs, face burnout, or crank out 30+ sessions a week to live.
What about any bright spots? Do you think there are any elements that we get right in today’s world that we wouldn’t want to reverse unintentionally?
I think that we are gaining more awareness into different aspects that impact people’s ability to gain access (SES, Culture, ethnic identity, systemic issues, etc.), however we still have a lot of work to do.
In your opinion, what are the 5 most impactful things that could help heal the broken mental health system? These could be on any level including training, workforce, policy, culture, equity etc.
1 . Compensation- When therapists are adequately compensated, they can show up better for the patients who need them, allowing the patients to get the care they deserve.
2 . Policies/Procedures in place that prevent outrageous quotas, and workload. I have seen many therapists who have caseloads of 60+ people, and they aren’t seeing these patient’s weekly, however they must juggle fitting all these people in, which is not doable, and hurts the patient in the long run.
3 . Education: There are issues within the graduate education systems, which I highlighted in my dissertation, and that is that our education is heteronormative, and white focused, and research supports the disparities of care within the field for Sexual and Gender minorities (LGBTQ+), as well as ethnic minorities (Black, Brown, Indigenous) people.
4 . Accessibility: There are many people that still don’t have access to care. When I worked in a treatment center, many people left their states, and came to California for care, and many of them would tell me that there weren’t any therapists near them, or the therapists were bombarded, that the patients were on a wait list for a year +
5 . Clinicians in positions of power: There are many of these companies that don’t have a single therapist on their advisory board, or in position of power, whenever there are policies being made, there should be a diverse advisory board of clinicians being consulted, people who are actively providing care to patients, who experience the issues firsthand so they can offer their insight.
If all of the items on your list were magically implemented tomorrow, what change might we see in the world? What are the signs (big and small) that would show us that the system is being healed?
-Higher retention rate of practitioners especially within community mental health
– Better quality of care for patients
-More accessibility to marginalized groups
– Less exploitation of clinicians
-Policies in place that don’t allow insurance companies to deny care, force therapists to diagnose a patient before a proper assessment and regulates insurance companies to provide payment for services in a timely manner, without them being able to “claw back” money.
What is a project you or others are working on today that gives you hope? How can our readers learn more about this work?
–I am working on developing my dissertation which was a training program designed to educate other clinicians on how to work with Sexual and Gender Minority (LGBTQ+) people, and moving it from a proposed program, into a pilot program, so that there can be more access to care for SGM people, in hopes to reduce the disparities in formal education for affirmative mental health care.
How do you see technology shaping the future of mental health care and its accessibility?
I think it depends on how the technology is used, there are platforms that exploit both patients, and providers, and it’s no secret in the industry. I think that if there are platforms in place that allow more people access to treatment while paying providers adequately then it’s a win-win and allows people to receive care that they need. Telehealth is also a wonderful tool that allows patients to access care from anywhere.
In your view, how do social factors like poverty, education, and culture affect mental health care and its effectiveness?
In my education I was taught to always be a systemic thinker, not only looking at the individuals, but also looking at all the other contexts such as education, sexual and gender identity, culture, socioeconomic status, religion, family system, etc. As a professor I teach my students at the very core of issues, are the human needs, and you cannot “reframe” a person’s thoughts out of poverty, systemic oppression, racism, etc. When people’s basic needs are not met, how can you address their mental health, when they are focusing on surviving, and are not able to worry about other things. There are many therapists who would love to help their patients that are struggling with their basic needs (food, clothing, hygiene, to name a few) however the ethics, and governing boards, don’t allow for that, and therapists’ struggle because it put them at risk for discipline, and license at risk, which impacts their livelihood in the future.
In light of the growing mental health crisis among young people, what innovative approaches or interventions have proven most successful for children and adolescents?
Unfortunately this is not a population that I work with so it’s hard to answer this question.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. 🙂
I know it says a person, but there are two very powerful women who I would love to sit down and have a meal with and just talk because they inspire me, in so many ways, they are “my aunties” and they don’t know it. I would love to have a meal with Viola Davis, and Angela Bassett. I aspire to have a fraction of the confidence, professionalism, and grace that both women have. Being a brown queer person, I am not used to taking up space and I remember hearing an interview with Viola Davis, and she said, “People say to me, ‘You’re the black Meryl Streep, there is no one like you.’ Okay, if there is no one like me, you pay me what I am worth.” That resonated with me, because I’ve had that same experience as a brown person, and yet as Davis highlights, I am nowhere near others in terms of money, or opportunity. Recently Bassett did not win the Oscar and her response to disappointment spoke to my soul, because she said “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So, I thought, yes, I was disappointed, and I handled it like a human being.” She reminds me that when things don’t work out for us, it is okay do handle things like a human being, because at the end of the day, we are in fact human, and we need to have grace for ourselves.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can connect via my website www.greyinsight.co
Thank you for your time and thoughtful answers. I know many people will gain so much from hearing this.
About The Interviewer: Stephanie Greer, PhD is the Co-founder and CEO of Akin Mental Health — a company dedicated to guiding families on their journey supporting a loved one with mental health challenges like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and severe depression. Stephanie is passionate about this topic from her own personal experience growing up with a mother who struggled with bipolar 1 disorder and found a path forward to overcome the obstacles and live well. Stephanie’s professional experience includes a doctorate in neuroscience as well as design research roles at Hopelab and Apple. Stephanie brings this personal passion together with her world-class science and technology background to support families across the US in their personal journeys supporting loved ones with mental illness. To learn more about Akin Mental Health and join our community, visit us at akinmh.com.
Healing A Broken Mental Health System: Dr Michael Grey Of Grey Insight On 5 Things That Can Be Done… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.