b'Access to Mental Health Careis Essential If you are experiencing a mental illness, you are not alone. One in ve Americanswill have a mental illness in their lifetime. Compare that with diabetes, which aectsone in 10. Your doctor checks your blood sugar during every physical to screen fordiabetes. Mental illness is twice as common, but when was the last time your primarydoctor did any screening to evaluate your mental health? Have they ever done so?Too few doctors do. Only a few short years ago, insurers were not even required to oer mental healthcoverage. Thanks to the Aordable Care Act, behavioral healthcare is now deemedan essential health benefit, making mental health and addiction treatmentrequired coverage. This has improved access for millions of Americans. Unfortunately,mental health is still treated as an afterthought in our healthcare system, and manyof us are not even aware of the coverage thats available under our healthcare plans,much less how to access those services. Start with the Doctor You See As a person with MS, you most likely have both a primary physician and a treatingneurologist. Either doctor will be able to talk to you about your mental healthconcerns and refer you to an appropriate specialist. Your neurologist may be morelikely to know mental health specialists in your area who are familiar with MS, butit can take longer to get in to see your neurologist. Mental health concerns shouldbe assessed without delay. So speak to the doctor you will see the soonest. Talk to your doctor about all the symptoms you have been experiencing thatmight be related to your mental health. You can highlight the symptoms on the earlierpages of this booklet and take it along as a reference. If a family member or friendhas noticed changes in your behavior, you can even ask them to accompany youand speak to the doctor with you. Your doctor may wish to run lab tests to rule out physical problems that can causeyour symptoms. For example, if you feel listless and want to sleep all the time, yourdoctor may want to rule out problems with your thyroid. This does not mean they donot believe you that you also feel depressed. It is simply that physical health problemscan sometimes mimic or even cause mental health symptoms. Once other problems have been ruled out, your doctor will refer you to anappropriate specialist for assessment and to create a treatment plan.12'