Willow Family Health Needs Your Support

Do you beleive that everyone deserves access to affordable, quality mental health care?

We do too. At Willow, we see how shortages of mental health care are taking a toll on our country. We see how this has a greater impact on vulnerable populations, including people who live in rural or urban areas, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those with neurodivergence such as autism.

We are dedicated to adressing this problem, but we can’t do it alone. We need the sponsorship of like-minded individuals who see the importance of excellent, culturally-sensitive, and neurodiversity-affirming training of stidemt therapists and understand that providing quality care at a low cost is impossible without donors.

Even a small donation can make a huge difference! At an average overhead of $70/hour, a donation of even $40 could provide an hour of therapy to a patient paying a low fee.

Are you interested in donating on a larger or more long-term basis? Get in touch with us and we can discuss how to make your contribution count.

Scope of the Problem

Lack of Access to Quality Therapy

Mental health care is unavailable for a concerning number of people.
A majority of people with mental health diagnoses are not getting the care they need.
Over 50% of people in the US live in an area with a shortage of mental health providers (as designated by DHHS).
It can be difficult to find in-network providers for many insurance carriers.
Up to 1/3 of mental health providers do not accept any insurance.
Insurance denies mental health claims at twice the rate of other claims.
Use of out-of-network care is higher for mental health than other medical care.
Out-of-network cost sharing is nearly 3 times as high as in-network cost sharing.
Vulnerable populations, like those with Medicaid, often have the most difficulty finding mental health care.
There is a lack of culturally-competent and diverse therapists, further disenfranchising vulnerable populations.
Therapy techniques have often been developed through testing on neurotypical and White male populations, making therapy less effective for others.

Barriers to Quality Workforce

The earning potential of mental health specialists often does not offset the upfront costs of education
Many internships allowing therapists to complete the required hours for licensure are unpaid, further adding to the financial burden.
This financial situation is most discouraging to low-SES students and other vulnerable populations, resulting in a lack of diversity in therapists.
There is often a shortage of qualified supervisors for students working with vulnerable populations, such as rural or diverse populations.

How Willow Intends to Help

Willow’s board and panel of supervisors are inclusive of a number of ethnic and religious minorities as well as neurodivergent individuals who are able to bring their experience and expertise to training culturally sensitive and neurodiversity affirming therapists.
Willow will provide fair sliding-scale cost sharing so that everyone is able to afford therapy.
Willow will hire and train mental health students, interns, and associates and pay them a fair wage, which will help to retain quality therapy trainees and allow them to focus on their training and not their finances.
Use of Telehealth will allow provision of therapy to patients who have difficulty accessing therapy due to transportation issues or who live in an area with mental health workforce shortages, including those in rural areas.
Willow is dedicated to providing culturally competent and neurodiversity affirming continuing education, not only to our trainees, but also to the mental health community at large.