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- We Need More Psych Nurses In The US!
More than 50 million people in the U.S. are living with mental health issues, but shockingly (or not, depending on where you reside), over half aren't getting the help they need. This is often because there aren't enough places to get help or people don't have the right insurance.
I recently read an article on Forbes that looked into how well each state supports mental health care by examining different factors that may play into the lack of mental health services.
Here's what they found:
Texas is at the very bottom for mental health support.
The South, including Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, is struggling the most with providing adequate mental health care.
When we moved from New York to Sacramento, we expected there to be more support and access for those suffering from mental health issues—boy were we wrong.
California is the 14th-worst state for mental health care, while New York is ranked 29th—and the recent guest I interviewed on our podcast shed some light on the situation.
But here are my thoughts:
Many of our viewers, who are psychiatric nurses, ask us if we'd recommend working in California. The truth is, we rarely discuss psych nursing because California doesn't prioritize mental health services. This is evident from the low wages psychiatric nurses earn in the Sacramento area. I mean, seriously, $44 per hour? I know Salary.com is not the most accurate source of information, but these numbers are pretty darn close to the truth.
Hourly Wage for Psych Nurses in the Sacramento Area
So, what DO I recommend?
I want you to take a psychiatric nurse practitioner, like Iman, from New York City as an example. She took notice of the severe lack of mental health services and wanted to do something about it. She previously worked as a psychiatric nurse in several different capacities, but there was only so much she could do to help address this crisis in her role as a staff nurse.
After getting her license to practice as an independent nurse practitioner, her clientele list grew at a rate she could not have anticipated.
Today, she owns a private practice where she is able to provide services for patients who would have otherwise had to wait months for an appointment through their primary health insurance provider. And in 2023, she was able to earn $600,000 from her business.
With this money, she and her husband have looked into purchasing homes that they plan to rent to Section 8 families who are in desperate need of affordable housing. It's a story of turning personal achievement into community support.
If you have any suggestions for future posts, let us know—reply to this email!
See you soon,
Jason
P.S. We will continue to give our newsletter subscribers a 20% discount on every spreadsheet on our website with the coupon code “20HOURS”. Get yours now!
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