From Crisis to Control: Taking Back Mental Health in America After the Big Bill

Discover how the latest healthcare bill could transform Mental Health in America.

In this episode of The Human-Canine Alliance Podcast, Stacie breaks down what the “Big, Beautiful Bill” means for mental health solutions, why Social Prescriptions are gaining traction, and how you can take control of your own wellbeing. 

We cover the real impact of Medicaid cuts, the rise of alternative therapies, and practical steps for navigating a changing healthcare landscape. Whether you’re concerned about access to care, the power of pharmaceutical companies, or new ways to support your mental health, this episode is packed with insights and actionable advice. 

Tune in to learn how you can be part of the movement to change the supply—and the future—of mental healthcare in America. Watch with captions on YouTube!

Transcript

this big, beautiful bill getting narrowly passed by the Senate looks pretty bad for America, but I think it could be an opportunity for Americans to take healthcare, at least mental healthcare into our own hands.

It's easier to get a pharmaceutical drug right now than it is to get a therapist. 

If we, the consumers will take 

control of the 

demand. We can change the supply. We can change the supply.

 Hey everyone, it's Stacie and this is The Human-Canine Alliance Podcast. Today we're talking about how the big, beautiful bill can and likely will drastically affect mental health solutions here in the United States.

 Let's just refresh our memory on what the statistics look like in America on mental health right now.

 One in four Americans, nearly 60 million adults have experienced mental illness in the past year.

Almost 10% of ER visits in the US are for treating mental health.

In 2022, we saw the highest number of suicide deaths in US history, making suicide the number two killer of young Americans.

And then let's also not forget that Dr. Vivek Murthy declared loneliness and social isolation, a mental health crisis in America. That was just a few years ago.

According to the World Health Organization, mental health disorders are now considered to be a global disease burden, and depression is representing the leading cause of disability, globally!

On average, governments allocate only about 2% of their health budgets to mental healthcare, and that's not including the low and the middle income countries who are spending less than 1%.

And while mental health disorders account for 10% of global disease burden, only 1% of global health workers are dedicated to mental health.

And get this in the US, The Health Resources and Services Administration projects a 20% decline in the number of psychiatrists by 2030 which could result in millions of people going untreated.

So now we've got our picture of what mental health looks like in America. By stats only, right? Now let's just take a look at what currently our biggest challenges are in mental health in America.

And those include:

access to immediate support

long wait times for therapy and psychiatric care. And we've talked about this before. It's an average of two months.

Workplace stress and burnout at an all time high.

And stigma that stops people from seeking help 'cause they're worried they're gonna be judged.

Now let's take a look at what the mental health solutions look like in America as of right now, which is pre Medicaid cuts, pre big, beautiful bill cuts.

Currently we Have national suicide and crisis lifeline support centers that are coordinated through a program called Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They are there to ensure anyone, anywhere, anytime, has access to mobile crisis teams to suicide and crisis lifelines, to a hotline, to some sort of support.

We also, in America, have over 500 certified community behavioral health clinics that deliver integrated mental health services regardless of insurance or the ability to pay.

In recent years, the US has actually been leading the charge in telehealth.

And we have integrated private digital platforms like Spring Health, which is an American digital mental health company that provides employee assistance programs and mental health benefits for employers and health plans. And they've actually only been around since 2016.

Some states have integrated crisis response frameworks like Cahoots out of Oregon and Star out of Denver, Colorado.

There have been investments into the growth of embedding behavioral health services into primary care settings, would then improve early detection and reduce emergency care.

We're all very aware that America has invested in wearable apps and AI tools.

And then workplace wellness programs. There's employers Out there now who not only offer paid time off and sick leave, but they also offer wellness hours.

In 2025, 33% of Americans have made mental health resolutions. Younger adults, especially ages 18 to 34, are leading the charge of normalizing therapy, mindfulness and self care .

And they're the same age group with the highest number of suicide.

I mean they're looking for a solution, and they're not finding that solution in medications.

Okay, so now let's take a look at what America could look like in 10 years from now when these Medicaid cuts have gone through. Because apparently these big beautiful bill cuts, it's 10 years of cuts.

And this is just a quick snapshot. The first thing is that government agency that is 

managing the 

988 lifeline call centers would likely be at risk of closure, reduced staffing because of their dependency on Medicaid and the funding that comes from the government.

Mobile crisis teams are likely to be downsized, especially in rural and underserved areas, resulting in slower or no available emergency response.

Overburdened ERs may again become the default mental health access point reversing recent progress in crisis diversion, and this is already happening in places like rural Iowa where mental health units in hospitals are already overflowing.

Sheriff deputies are transporting ill individuals to jail because they have no psychiatric beds for them. Budget cuts will make this worse.

The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, they will likely see reduced services, staffing, operating hours, and that's because a lot of their money comes from Medicaid.

Clinics serving uninsured or underinsured populations may close entirely without federal support leaving people with very little or no option for mental health care.

Telehealth and digital tools, as I mentioned before, recently America has been leading the way. However, with the Medicaid cuts with the big beautiful bill cuts, we could very much see this completely reversed.

Innovations like the employee assistance program, Spring Health, those will likely continue in the private sector, but they're not gonna have any assistance or any help from public funding.

And so there'd be limited populations who would end up getting to use those.

Programs embedding behavioral health into primary care may be defunded, reducing preventative care and early detection, particularly in the safety net clinics.

Crisis response models like Cahoots in Oregon and Star in Denver, they could face budget shortfalls or lose state contracts basically because there's not as much money coming into the state. And so therefore they might not be as highly prioritized as other things.

And right while we're in a cusp of Americans starting to realize that mental health is a real problem and is a real thing that we need to pay attention to, and we've got this group of 18 to 34 year olds who are really actively starting to make strides with it.

Now we're limiting resources. Now we're cutting budgets. Now we're making it harder to have access to these programs at a time when people are starting to shift from it being a stigma to it being something that could really help their lives.

The government agency, SAMHSA, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, who I spoke about, who runs the suicide and national crisis hotlines, they have a planned expansion.

However, with these budget cuts, actually looking at losing up to a billion dollars of funding. And so therefore it could go from anyone, anywhere, anytime, to only in some places for those who can pay.

And then let's not forget about our elderly folks and depression because, back to the leading global disability, according to the World Health Organization, in mental health, is depression.

Some states may have to cut home-based services like personal care and adult daycare to balance the budgets. These services are not federally mandated, which makes 'em easy targets.

Some states are also gonna have to restrict eligibility, meaning fewer adults will qualify for these services unless they enter more expensive and restrictive nursing homes.

When people lose or can't access adult care programs, more of them will end up in emergency rooms and hospitals for situations that could have been managed at home.

Support for mental health, developmental disabilities, and aging in place efforts are likely to be diminished significantly.

Right now Medicaid funds a substantial share of the adult care workforce, which is like home aides and adult day staff. These cuts mean states can reduce payment rates which is just going to exasperate the staffing shortages that are already currently a problem, and then create heightened job loss within the industry. In fact, cuts to Medicaid and SNAP could generate 1.2 million job losses and subtract $154 billion from state economies by 2029.

That's not far away, guys. That is not far away.

In addition to these expected cuts, America is already behind in terms of how we invest in our mental health because other countries invest more in a public sector mental health strategy including universal preventive solutions. Whereas the US still largely relies on private and digital innovations and Medicaid coverage expansions.

 Okay. I feel like that's a lot of info, a lot of data, a lot of excitement.

So I'm gonna go ahead, take a commercial break, give you a little break. Meet you back here in a few.

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 Welcome back to The Human-Canine Alliance. I am Stacie, your host, and we're gonna get right into it.

In 2025, the World Economic Forum noted these three things to be crucial solutions to mental health globally.

Integrating behavioral health into primary care,

drawing on the power of AI,

and prioritizing workplace wellbeing.

Get this. Social Prescriptions are perfectly aligned with every single one of these recommendations.

Every single one. When you integrate behavioral health into primary care, you create prevention, you create early detection.

And this is exactly what Social Prescriptions is aiming to do. Specifically, it is aiming to treat the whole person by addressing underlying causes of distress, not symptoms.

I think we're headed towards Social Prescriptions, and I think that is something we should all be really excited about because if we move in the direction of social prescribing, that means, we put healthcare back into our hands.

We get the control versus going to the doctor and asking for a prescription or getting prescribed whatever it is you get prescribed and hoping that's gonna work for you.

So let's just talk a little bit about how social prescribing could very well be the solution to integrating behavioral health into primary care, drawing on the power of AI and prioritizing workplace wellbeing.

First of all, There's a holistic approach. Person centered care is at the forefront of integrating behavioral health into primary care, and it's also at the forefront of Social Prescriptions. Both models emphasize collaboration between primary care doctors, therapists, social workers, and link workers or care coordinators. They Are There to support the patient's social, emotional, and psychological needs.

Integrating behavioral health into primary care brings mental health support into a broader, more personal health framework often identifying social stressors like loneliness, housing insecurity, or trauma.

In that same aspect, Social Prescriptions seek to connect people with non-medical support like community resources, animal assisted therapy, or exercise groups.

Embedding behavioral health in primary care makes it more likely, patients are screened early, referred to appropriate support, and that includes social or lifestyle interventions.

When It 

Comes to prevention and early intervention, Social Prescriptions are so good at this. What they do is they integrate a social worker or a link worker is what it's called in the UK, and they pair them up with the doctor. And therefore it's not just on the doctor to diagnose this patient, it's also part of the job of the link worker or the care coordinator or the social worker, whatever they're calling them.

And it's also the part of the job as the patient, it becomes a team effort. And this is where the co-produced method is applied, that my upcoming guest, Dr. Zarr, has been practicing for decades and I look forward to learning more about it. I cannot wait to interview him.

And that approach really allows for both the patient and the doctor and the link worker to have a conversation and to really learn about what led that person to the doctor's office in the first place.

that's a far cry from what we currently have in America. I mean if Social Prescriptions were put in place, we would have the ability to potentially just go see the link worker and never even have to see the doctor.

And then lastly, reducing the use of medication.

Social Prescriptions don't prescribe pharmaceutical medication, Social Prescriptions prescribe things like nature, art, music, dance, volunteering.

Integrating behavioral health into primary care will also lead to less medication usage because of the prevention and the intervention.

Creates another pathway for folks who may have ended up on the pharmaceutical pathway if that pathway wasn't available for them.

 Something I feel like I need to say regularly is we are not trying to replace pharmaceutical medication. I don't think that's an answer, but I do think adding to pharmaceutical medication and giving people alternative options to pharmaceutical medications such as Social Prescriptions should be an option globally and anyone anywhere should have access to Social Prescriptions in the same way that they have access to pharmaceuticals.

It's easier to get a pharmaceutical drug right now than it is to get a therapist. Truly in America.

 I will say this big, beautiful bill getting narrowly passed by the Senate looks pretty bad for America, but I think it could be an opportunity for Americans to take healthcare, at least mental healthcare back into our own hands.

And if we, the consumers will take control of the demand. We can change the supply. We can do that.

If we stop letting the pharmaceutical companies tell us what to demand, we can change the supply.

A lot of us might not have an option because there might 

be 

a lot less options in America when it comes to not only mental health, but when it comes to care for our parents and our grandparents.

All of this leads back to lifestyle and it leads back to mental health because if your lifestyle isn't something you enjoy, you're not a happy person. Has everything to do with your society and your economy and your living situation.

If you don't have any opportunities or any options, it's pretty easy to feel like you're never gonna get past whatever it is you're going through.

I just want people to understand we have more power in this than they're letting us believe.

If we start taking control of the demand, we will change the supply because that is how it works. If we stop demanding pharmaceutical drugs just because we saw it on a commercial and we start demanding Social Prescriptions and things like prescribing nature, prescribing art, prescribing dance, prescribing dogs, we will be providing ourselves with many more solutions and the pharmaceutical companies and the government will have to change course somehow.

If they don't have the customers, if they don't have consumers purchasing their products, they will change course. That's how it works. Join me in changing the supply. Let's change the supply. 

Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to The Human-Canine Alliance 

podcast. Be 

sure to check out my resources. I'll have them in the show notes for this episode because there was a lot of factual information. If you wanna do more digging on your own, I would start with that resource list. It's a pretty good one.

If you haven't already, please be sure to click follow wherever you're listening right now. Also please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, wherever you're at, we're at. We appreciate your support!

Thank you so much for listening to The Human-Canine Alliance podcast. I am Stacie, your host. I hope you continue to listen and watch.