Paul Conti

Obscenely difficult.

And we should say that's not okay.

I think psychiatrists and therapists and master's level social workers, psychologists, and you name it, I think

we should all say, this is not okay.

And then we as a society should be saying, this is not okay.

Otherwise, what you're saying, which is I think completely true, will only become worse as there's more and more barriers to getting the help a person needs.

And each time a person isn't helped,

it sets the odds against them getting more help.

I should say here that when I started working, there were times I would send people to an emergency room, right?

If there was some emergency, you know, emergency in their mental health and they were at risk.

And there were times I'd send somebody to an emergency room where if you stopped and looked, it would have been malpractice not to do that.

Now, it's not just me who has an incredibly high threshold for sending someone to an emergency room because you send someone who's in a lot of distress and oftentimes they're sitting on a gurney in a hallway or they're locked in a small white room and all they had was depression.

They're scared when they go in.

And 36 hours later, oh, they're feeling a little better.

Why?

Because they're desperate to get out of there.

And someone sends them home.

I mean, so our systems have shifted so much that we tolerate now en masse what is egregious to the individual.

I think we're much better served by the latter.

And again, it doesn't have to be over years.