Psychiatrists Widely Unavailable For Those With Mental Illness

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It is estimated that one out of every five Americans suffers from a mental illness that could be helped with psychiatric services but only forty percent have received the mental health treatment they might need.

According to a new study, part of the problem maybe access to psychiatrists.

In the study, only 26% of attempts to make an appointment with a psychiatrist were able to make an appointment. The researchers pretended they were patients and called offices during normal business hours. They were only able to contact a third of the 360 providers they called, followed by another 26 percent on second attempt.

The work was done around the country and there were differences - psychiatrists in Houston were more likely to answer the phone on initial attempt than psychiatrists in Boston.

On average, the appointments that were successfully made had a one month wait.

Whether a patient had insurance or not seemed to have no impact on success