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Researcher: How old are you?

Participant: I’m 71

Researcher: What do you think the role of psychological health is in maintaining physical health?

Participant: Very closely related. Connected. Necessary. Impacts each other. Your psychological health impacts physical health, physical impacts psychological. You need to deal with both of them. They’re not separate, I mean they’re separate but they’re connected. 

Researcher: That makes sense. What is mental health to you?

Participant: Mental health is.. Your emotions, your psychological make-up. Your self-esteem. How you see the world, how you think the world reflects on you. Um, all those kinds of things. Anything that, is more partly in your mind, things that you don't necessarily see. Like you can see a broken leg, but you can’t look at a person necessarily and see a broken heart or depression. I mean you can, and you can’t. 

Researcher: sometimes

Participant: right, it’s not necessarily easily defined. 

Researcher: How important do you think having access to mental health treatment is?

Participant: extremely important.

Researcher: okay, and do you think you personally have adequate access to mental health care?

Participant: yes. But I have really good health insurance.

Researcher: That is helpful

Participant: yeah well, I have really good health insurance however, when I wanted to see a specific therapist for anxiety, it was outside of the network, and so I had to pay $175 per session because she was not contracted with medicare. So, if I didn’t have the resources to be able to pay $175 a week, that’s really expensive. And that was one of the reasons I ended up going from a week, to every other week, to every three weeks and eventually stopped, because of the finances. So in a way, yes and no. If i had wanted any therapist within medicare I could have, but because I wanted one, specifically that was christian and dealt with anxiety, I had to pay for it. 

Researcher: That’s really nice that you can request a therapist  based on religion.

Participant: yes! And you know I asked around , different people that I knew, in the christian world, and I said I want a christian. That wasn’t my top priority, my top priority was anxiety, someone that deals with anxiety, and it’d be great if they were Christian. 

Researcher: So, in what conditions or situations do you think mental health care is necessary? 

Participant: any situation where a person’s mental health is preventing them from functioning day to day.

Researcher:  Do you feel like that covers if you or someone you know is experiencing stress or a change in lifestyle?

Participant: yes, yes! Because of a change in lifestyle, some people can handle that, or they might have a good support system in their friends, or in their family, or in their job. Other people can’t, and in that transition issues come up. So people need that, things that are just temporary to a long term condition. But that should be available, and, I don’t know if you’re going to ask this later but medical doctors that see you for a medical condition, should also have more training in spotting mental conditions. 

Researcher: Yeah, that would definitely cut out some of the middle men

Participant: Right! And, for an example, when I had open heart surgery, my doctor and surgeon were great, the cardiologist was great but they didn’t initially ask me, “are you anxious about this” or “how are you feeling after surgery, emotionally”. No one asked me that, it wasn’t until I went to cardiac rehabilitation, that I had to fill out an intake, and they asked “are you depressed?” and “have you been anxious?’, and I said to the therapist, “this is so important, people need to ask questions. The medical profession needs to ask questions”

Researcher: and this is a major, stressful change in lifestyle

Participant: yes, yes! And so, that needs to happen, but also for people that get older. Medicare has a form that you have to fill out whenever you go in for a physical, they check my cognitive but then they have me fill out a depression worksheet, and I think it’s really helpful. And I’m very happy that I don’t have cognitive impairment and I’m not depressed, but if I was there would be an opportunity there, to get help. 

Researcher: Do you think you would be able to recognize a mental health or emotional problem in a friend or relative?

Participant: Yes.

Researcher: okay.

Participant: maybe, probably yes.

Researcher: I know you pretty much already answered this but would you ever consider going to see a mental health professional, why or why not? 

Participant: Yes, I definitely would, I have in the past, and in the recent past. 

Researcher: And who do you think needs mental health care? Do you think some people need it more than others? 

Participant: I personally think, everyone needs therapy. And yes definitely. Because there’s all ranges, some people could just be going through a difficult time, a transition, or a difficult situation and just need temporary support. Other people can be ongoing problems, and need more intense things. You know, someone may be overall fine and then become bipolar, there’s so many different things that can happen, whether they’re situational or physical things. So yes I think everyone should have the opportunity to have it, and I imagine most people, at some point, need some kind of help.

Researcher: okay, thank you so much for that

Participant: and to go back to the previous question, in regards to recognizing a mental health problem in a family member, I do think I’m insightful to that sort of thing, but I also know that sometimes, people are so incredibly, gifted, or able, or resilient, to be able to cover up things. Especially if there’s been a traumatic event and they’ve learned just to be resilient, I mean people can be really resilient. So I changed my answer to I don’t know. Like the real answer is I feel like I could but because people are so resilient, getting to know people you can find out things. And there’s still a stigma. You can always say your ankle hurts, you have a sore throat, but you can’t always say “I’m anxious” “I’m depressed” “I believe things that aren’t true”, all of that. 

Researcher: yeah, and that leads into my next question of why do you think issues with mental health or mental illness occur?

Participant: Um, all sorts of reasons. It can be organic, environmental, cultural. It could be systemic, it could be hereditary, it could be a traumatic event. There’s unlimited reasons. 

Researcher: Do you think age and mental health care are related in anyway?

Participant: Um, yes. The older you get, your body, physically and emotionally change, and wear out. As older people, our bodies are wearing out and that causes emotional stress, emotional issues. So, yes. There’s also some behaviors that can be considered appropriate when you’re younger but not as you grow up, so that’s age related as well. Also, sometimes kids, young or teenagers, experience trauma or extra stress, so they either grow up too fast, miss out on a part of childhood, or they have to resort to certain behavior to just get by, so that again would be an age affecting something. 

Researcher: And last question, has your attitude towards mental health changed with age? 

Participant: Um, yes, yes. I think when I was younger, like in my 20’s, first of all you never talked about, and second of all, there was always this sense of “what’s the person doing wrong”. If a person is anxious or depressed, isn’t capable of leading a productive life, it’s their fault. Mental illness growing up was someone's fault. So Culturally, the way of looking at mental illness has totally changed. I went into psychology to understand myself, that’s why I went in, not to help people but to understand myself, and that’s changed now. 

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