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I've been trying to find a psychiatrist for one of my kids. I looked up providers that take my insurance, but all the doctors are listed individually so you have to cross reference them by address and phone number to figure out which practice they're at.
Then I started calling places and it took eight different phone calls to find a single place that was actually taking new patients, despite having filtered for that in my insurance's provider search. Almost two hours straight of calling places, navigating phone menus, and getting told "no we can't help you."
The one that is actually taking new patients and will actually accept our insurance? The earliest they can see my kid is six weeks from now.
How is someone with anxiety and depression supposed to do all of this? Especially if they're not as lucky to have the spare time in the middle of the day to do it?