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Volunteers in
Psychotherapy generates
community service
(February
2007 Issue)
By Elinor Nelson
It appeared to be a win-win proposition from the start, a veritable
Utopian-style arrangement. Since 1998, Hartford's "Volunteers in
Psychotherapy" (VIP) has been helping people to obtain psychotherapy
without having to pay cash or use insurance benefits. Instead, clients
volunteer at local charities - four hours of volunteer labor for
each hour of therapy - to pay the bill. As a side benefit, the therapy
is not subject to managed care restrictions or to the breaches of
confidentiality that insurance reimbursement can extract.
The therapist doesn't have to deal with insurance companies but
gets paid less than half of the going rate. And local charities
are major winners, with approximately 2,200 hours of therapy generating
8,800 hours of community service.
"VIP protects people's privacy and lets them determine whether
continued therapy is of value to them, instead of leaving that decision
to insurers or public clinics that can benefit financially by not
providing therapy," said VIP Director Richard Shulman, Ph.D.
VIP is supported by more than 150 private donors' tax-deductible
charitable donations, as well as by 52 grants from 27 philanthropic
foundations. Additionally, all of VIP's administrative and development
work is volunteered and central office space and local phone are
donated. While many clients go to VIP because they can't afford
private psychotherapy, VIP also welcomes clients who want an assurance
of confidentiality. "Health insurers routinely may require participating
psychotherapists to provide reports on the private lives and therapy
of their clients. Employers may receive documentation identifying
employee use of therapy benefits. But these practices undermine
the true privacy necessary for honest discussions of intimate personal
topics in psychotherapy," said Shulman.
Another element of accountability is VIP's fees for unkept or irresponsibly
cancelled sessions. In stark contrast to public clinics with high
cancellation rates, at VIP, less than three percent of sessions
were unkept and VIP clients have paid 100% of the $20 to 60 cancellation
fees.
The numbers are growing. In 2001, VIP provided about 250 therapy
sessions and they've averaged 390 sessions yearly from 2002-2005.
Since its inception, the program has worked with about 280 individuals
and families.
VIP has been contacted over the years by more than six dozen psychotherapists
nation-wide who are interested in duplicating the program. Shulman
is happy to offer free advice. In Boston, Donna Grant, LICSW, who
has a small private psychotherapy practice and also works at the
Lemuel Shattuck Hospital's Goldfarb Behavioral Health Clinic, is
hoping to find like-minded therapists who could help set up a Boston-area
branch. "I've been thinking about treatment issues for a long time,"
she says, "about abuses in lack of confidentiality and over-reliance
on medication." She was put in touch with Shulman by a therapist
she met recently at a workshop. "It was so inspiring," she says.
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