How Much My Mental Illness Costs Me Each Month

finances are often a big concern for people who are living with chronic and persistent mental illnesses many people who are living with a chronic or severe mental illness are living at or below the poverty line and it's estimated in the United States that about 20 percent of people who are experiencing houselessness have schizophrenia there are several reasons why finances may be something that someone who's living with schizophrenia struggles more with but one of these reasons may just be the incredible financial burden of just living with and managing a mental illness like schizophrenia so in today's video I'm going to be breaking down exactly how much my mental illness costs me per month foreign thing to just point out before we get started is that I do live in Canada where we have Universal Health Care coverage and so I don't pay for doctors visits or even psychiatrist visits it doesn't cover my meds however meds are still hugely subsidized by the Canadian government and I am lucky enough to be able to afford Private health insurance that does cover things like medications and a little bit of therapy and things like that so in this video I'm going to be sharing exactly how much I pay including the coverage that I have through Private health insurance and Universal Health Care offered by the government but I'm also going to share how much it would cost if I didn't have this coverage because I think that's an unfortunate reality of many many people who are living with and managing their illness of schizophrenia okay so starting with medications so I pay so I am on one two three four different kinds of medications and one of these is quite expensive and without coverage per month cost is 575 4.22 now again this is subsidized by the Canadian government so this amount could be even higher in places like the United States or places where maybe medications aren't as highly subsidized by the government but with my private health insurance for this medication I pay 25 a month the second medication costs 19.07 I pay five dollars and 17 cents the next medication costs 13.56 per month I pay four dollars and seven cents and the final medication costs 17.29 per month of which I pay five dollars and nineteen cents so if I didn't have insurance the amount that I would be paying for all these medications per month is 624.14 which is quite a large amount to be spending every month on medications now that said I do have Private health insurance that highly subsidizes this even further than what the government does and so what I actually pay per month is 39.43 now I just did a quick search to find out how much the same medication would cost if I was uninsured in the United States and so for a 30-day supply of the same medication actually half the dose though would cost in the United States if you don't have health insurance coverage 1776 dollars per month that's for a 30-day Supply so it's kind of outrageous what medications can cost if you were living without health insurance the next kind of big and ongoing expense that I incur as a result of my mental illness is therapy now I used to go to you know when I was in periods where I was really really struggling I would be in therapy every couple days and so you know if if you're paying out of pocket for that that really really starts to add up I'm in kind of a more stable period of my illness right now and so I'm really only needing to see my my therapist every three weeks or so sometimes I have to see them a little bit more frequently but generally it's about every three weeks and so it costs 200 per session to see my therapist so through my private health insurance um they cover a hundred dollars per session for 10 sessions per year and after that I pay the full amount so assuming that I go to therapy 18 times per year which is what three times or once every three weeks translates to it's probably actually more than that but assuming I go 18 times a year that would cost thirty six hundred dollars a year which translates to three hundred dollars per month so that's if I didn't have any coverage with the coverage that I do have though I pay about twenty six hundred dollars a year which translates to 216.67 per month so that's again not a small cost to be incurring every month now I've made reference to my private health insurance many times because it helps cover my medications and my therapy and that kind of thing and each month this cost me 180.54 so again it does help you know kind of soften the blow of some of the other big costs like medication and therapy but in and of itself is kind of a large expense to be incurring every single month as well now again I live in Canada so something that I'm very very grateful for is that I have access to a GP and a psychiatrist for free now this isn't the case for people who are living in the United States or places where health coverage is not Universal and they don't have this kind of government supplied coverage and so if you don't have insurance in the United States a psychiatrist visit can cost between 100 and 300 and so if you're needing to see a psychiatrist say once a month or once every couple of weeks that can be a cost that really really starts add up as well okay so for the things that I've already mentioned now so meds therapy and Private health insurance if I didn't have coverage what these things would cost minus the Private health insurance if I didn't have coverage what it would cost every month is 1 104.68 which is kind of huge but with coverage and with my private health insurance what I pay each month for these things is 436.64 so now another facet of how mental illness can impact finances that people maybe don't often think about as much is the factor of lost productivity so if you are needing to take mental health days or if you are struggling a lot with your mental health on a certain day or several days or you know weeks out of the month that can really impact your ability to make income to earn money and so you know there are days that I can't work where I need to take mental health days and then there's the lost wages come from that and so assuming I'm making let's say thirty dollars per hour one day a week that I can't work would translate to two hundred and forty dollars a week which translates to about 960 dollars per month in lost wages just not being able to work one day a week which is I think probably a really you know realistic reality for a lot of people who are living with an illness like schizophrenia if they are able to work at all and then there's the factor of that I have experienced actually of getting pushed out of jobs as well which if I'm making thirty dollars an hour would translate to forty eight hundred dollars per month of lost wages from being pushed out of a job and no longer being employed and then we can kind of move into some of the expenses around what it takes to take care of myself and manage my mental illness in that way so kind of some of the self-care costs and so this can include things like a gym membership which I pay 75 a month for even things like healthy food which I pay roughly 5 hundred dollars a month for just myself vitamins thirty dollars a month self-help books and stuff like that maybe about a hundred dollars a year which translates to about just over eight dollars per month things like massage things like weighted blankets which I won't include that and I won't include things like food in these totals because they're kind of things that maybe you don't need or that the food that everyone needs you know but they are you know factors involved in terms of what it takes to really take care of yourself and to manage your mental illness is spending money on all of these things and all of these ways you need to take care of yourself another really really costly component of having a mental illness like schizophrenia is hospitalizations now again I'm really really lucky that this is covered for me living in Canada but places like the United States or places where they don't have universal health coverage this is not the reality and people need to pay out of pocket for hospitalizations unless they have Private health care insurance that would cover it so the amount of times I'm hospitalized per year has kind of fluctuated throughout my illness there have been periods of my illness where I have been hospitalized multiple times in a year for prolonged periods and then there have been times where I have only been hospitalized once in a year or even not at all and so I'm going to take a rough average and say that I am going to factor in the cost of being hospitalized for two weeks every year which is probably a lot less than what it is actually averaged out to over the course of my Illness but just as a conservative estimate will go with that and so again I live in Canada and so it's covered but one time I moved to another Province and so I actually got a bill in the mail for what it would have cost me for a two week stay and it was fourteen thousand dollars now again this is highly subsidized by the Canadian government and so this amount for a two weeks day could be even higher in another country but that is no small cost for a two-week stay in the hospital and so fourteen thousand dollars for one two weeks day per year would Translate to to 1166.67 per month another really expensive treatment that kind of goes hand in hand with hospitalizations and again is something that I'm really really fortunate was covered by my Universal Health Care in Canada is the treatment of ECT now not everyone who has schizophrenia receives ECT but it is something that I did have access to and I did go through so the cost of one treatment is about twenty five hundred dollars now I had 12 of these treatments which would translate to thirty thousand dollars which if you break that up per month would cost twenty five hundred dollars per month again this amount is probably highly subsidized by the Canadian government and so it could be even higher than this in other countries where it's not as subsidized and again this was also covered for me which I'm extremely fortunate to have had and again is not the case for maybe other people in other parts of the world now there have been times where I have had many many different appointments to get to and so kind of an often overlooked expense of that is what it costs to get to and from these appointments and that Transportation cost and so I've estimated roughly 100 per month in gas and vehicle maintenance as the cost incurred of getting to and from appointments that's also about the cost of a monthly bus pass if you don't have a car which you would also need in order to get to your appointments something else that can be a really big expense is caregiving expenses now I'm lucky and I kind of joke with my husband that he's kind of my full-time caregiver so I'm very fortunate that I don't need to hire outside support but if you did need that kind of external support the average hourly cost of one home health aide is twenty one dollars and so let's say you need about eight hours a week a minimum would translate to about 672 dollars per month in extra cost in order to have help with things like keeping up with life and keeping up with hygiene and cleanliness of your home and all those kind of things that people who are living with schizophrenia might need a little bit of extra support with now again this is not a cost that I personally incur but it is something that many people who have my same illness do have another cost that I am fortunate to have not incurred yet in my experience with my illness is legal expenses an unfortunate reality of living with schizophrenia is often entanglement with the legal system and so the added expenses of this can be an additional burdensome cost for many people who are living with schizophrenia so this section of you know hospitalization ECT Transportation costs caregiver legal expenses all of this well maybe not including legal expenses but all of this would total about 4 438.67 per month which is kind of a huge huge cost to be incurring now I live in Canada again so my Hospital staying ECT were covered so I would actually pay 772 dollars per month and again I don't have a caregiver I have my husband for free which is kind of nice so that would actually be what I would paying of all this is 100 per month for you know the transportation cost okay so to break it all down for you and to give the final totals what I actually pay per month with my private health insurance and with the Universal Health Coverage offered by the government of Canada I pay 6 649.97 per month for things like medication and therapy and Private health insurance and transportation to and from appointments and so that's kind of the total bulk total of what I actually pay per month if you include mental health days and the kind of the lost wages component this would actually look more like sixteen hundred and nine dollars and ninety seven cents per month which is again higher when you factor that in now if I didn't have any sort of coverage like Private health insurance coverage and I didn't have or I didn't live in Canada and have this Universal Health Care component as well the cost of all of these things would be six thousand two hundred and sixty four dollars and eighteen cents per month and if you factor in mental health loss day wages it would be seven thousand two hundred and twenty four dollars and eighteen cents per month and that's not even including if you have legal expenses so when you told total up all of these expenses and potential expenses you can incur as a result of just trying to manage your mental illness trying to manage your schizophrenia it's kind of easy to see why dealing with their mental illness for some people becomes kind of not an option due to these huge financial burdens and barriers and something that I didn't even touch on is spending as a symptom of my mental illness part of my mental illness is bipolar disorder and in periods of mania I have increased spending which could also be attributed you know as a direct result of my mental illness and increased costs that I occur so there's lots of different you know factors and considerations to take into account when figuring out exactly how much your mental illness costs you every month and honestly I was surprised to see how big the total is in terms of what it costs to manage my mental illness every month when I was on disability I was getting about sixteen hundred dollars per month to cover all of my expenses including rent and food and of this 649.97 was going directly to just managing my mental health so that left you know about 950 dollars to cover rent and food and any other expenses I needed to have that month and so it's kind of no surprise that people who are living with an illness like schizophrenia and in the situation of relying on disability or whatnot or kind of hovering around the poverty line or even are experiencing houselessness and now I don't want to get too much into this but when I started to kind of get more stable and be able to work more regularly and started to make a bit more income well any income at all I was taken off of disability and I no longer received that support and then I was taking away my my benefits from disability as well and so that's why I'm having to pay out of pocket for all of these things and needing that Private health insurance coverage as well and it just kind of feels like a bit of a trap where you get a little bit on your feet and start to you know kind of be starting to make Headway in terms of improving your quality of life and being able to afford all of these things and then the support gets taken away and you're kind of left on your own and a reality of living with schizophrenia is kind of fluctuating capacity in periods of recovery but also periods of relapse with the illness and you know having a more difficult time and maybe not being able to work as regularly and going through those fluctuating periods and when you no longer have that support or that safety net to fall back onto that can leave you in a really precarious financial situation so that's kind of an overview of the costs that I incur every month as a result of my mental illness but I would love to hear from you as well were there costs that I missed that you also incur as a result of your mental illness and not only that how do you deal with this financial burden of managing your mental illness every month what do you do to kind of get by and be able to you know spend on all of these necessary costs to take care of your mental health so thank you so much for watching this video and as always wishing you and your loved ones good health we'll see in the next video bye

Channel: Living Well with Schizophrenia

Views: 35,198

Keywords: schizophrenia, schizoaffective, schizoaffective disorder, mental health, mental illness, cost, finances, financial burden, cost of mental illness, cost of schizophrenia, money, spending, expenses

Id: tf92-JUn5JE

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 23 2023