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Date
2018
Abstract
It has been well established that individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders face numerous barriers to accessing adequate health care treatment including inability to pay, lack of insurance coverage, lack of provider availability, and stigma. The 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment for Washington County, Vermont identified substance use and mental health as priority health needs for the county. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the specific barriers individuals with mental health and substance use disorders are experiencing in Waterbury, Vermont. A survey was distributed to patients being seen at Waterbury Family Practice with behavioral health or substance use disorder diagnoses. The results demonstrated that approximately half of respondents felt they experienced barriers to treatment. The most commonly sited barriers were financial difficulty and lack of provider availability.
Clinical Site
Waterbury Family Practice
Keywords
mental health, substance use disorder, Vermont
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Disciplines
Medical Education | Primary Care
Recommended Citation
Kilgus, Britta J., "Assessing Barriers to Mental Health Treatment" (2018). Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects. 386.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/386