In Solidarity with you, Arizona

I will start by saying this post was NOT written by AI. Because AI blogs always feel really inauthentic and I never really vibe on reading them.

Arizona,

We're really going through it right now. Things are shifting in the world; it can be scary to even turn on the news or leave your home. People are scared. And rightfully so.

Did you know we ranked as one of the lowest states for mental health measures including access to mental health services and rates of unmet needs? Yup, in the Mental Health America's 2025 "State of Mental Health in America" report, we ranked a solid a #45 for access to mental health, and 50th for overall mental health outcomes.

That's really, really terrible.

About a decade ago, I graduated with a public health degree and dreamed of making a nonprofit. I moved to Arizona in 2017 and worked in the community mental health system for years. After seeing how devastating that system was for patients, I left and launched my own practice with a very different model. Paperflower Psychiatry has grown and serves thousands of patients every year. But still, we are just one practice.

And people will still come to our practice saying the same things.

"I can't go to therapy. I can only afford these appointments or therapy, and I can't go without my medication." "I can't afford my medication this month. Can we taper off?"

"I'm losing my insurance next month. I need to get off of my medications."

"I couldn't pick up my medications this month because I didn't have enough money."

I can offer pro-bono services or sliding scale all day long. But we are just one practice. And there are people who need more than we have availability for, or that we can offer.

So here is Paperflower Foundation.

Let's talk about Financial Issues

There are multiple studies that show that people with disabilities often have financial barriers that impede them from acquiring or using helpful tools. This could be as simple as noise-cancelling headphones, weighted blankets or an AAC device. There are people who would truly benefit from these things, but not being able to afford them, they just beg us to change the medication instead because insurance will cover it. And they have hope maybe something can work.

But we need more than bandaids.

One study found that about 50% of families raising autistic adolescents have experienced at least one form of material hardship in the last year -- this could mean they had difficulty with savings, food insecurity, or bill-paying difficulty. Many of these families did lack access to savings in general which could be another barrier in obtaining care.

Families with autistic children often take on so many more costs including medical appointments, evaluations, adaptive equipment, speech, OT, PT..other supportive services. It is estimated that raising an autistic child takes about 18% more annual income than families who have children without disabilities.

How can we offer neuroaffirming care while people are having to decide which service they can or cannot afford for their child?

Uninsured and underinsured populations are more likely to give up mental health treatment because they cannot afford it. About a quarter of folks with a mental health disorder state they could not receive care because mental health services/therapy were not covered by insurance. The CDC estimates that about 8% of adults with prescription medications report a period of time that they did not take their medication in the last year to reduce costs. And one in five adults have reported that they could not fill a prescription because of cost. This is wild.

And this will continue to worsen.

How Insurance Hurts Therapists (and you)

BCBS AZ recently made a decision that greatly affects therapists within our state. They noted that any therapist under supervision is no longer allowed to do their own intakes (first appointment). They must all be completed by the supervising therapist. Supervising therapists and psychologists sometimes oversee dozens of therapists. Now we are creating waitlists for new patients and an unreasonable amount of work that could otherwise be done by competent mental health professionals.

What is the impact of this?

Therapists will be forced to stop taking insurance.

So ultimately, the clients who can not afford mental health care without insurance will suffer.

This is no fault of the therapist. This is the insurance company pushing people against the wall to create barriers. They are making moves to further drive down reimbursement rates and to claw back money to put in their own pockets.

Moving Toward Change

I'm not sure exactly how successful this nonprofit will ever be. But I'm not going to let it be a choice for this to flop.

Because we can't.

Arizona: the mental health professional community is here and we want to support you.

We want you to afford your medications.

To be able to afford sensory equipment.

To be able to attend therapy regularly.

To be able to afford a mental health evaluation or ASD evaluation.

To be able to go to OT, Speech, or whatever therapies help.

Let's partner.

Let's do this.

Let's support our community.

Let's push back against the system burdening us for the benefit of millionaires and billionaires.

Love,

Maria

Paperflower Foundation