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Non-Psychiatric Healthcare

People living with mental health conditions sometimes encounter difficulty addressing physical health care issues. Unfortunately, there are health providers who discriminate against patients who have a psychiatric disability. 

Often, this discrimination is not blatant – usually, a health care provider will not come right out and say that they will not treat someone who has a mental illness; sometimes, however, they do.  They may say that they do not want to perform a procedure on you because they don’t think you will follow up with necessary after-care, because they are making an assumption that your mental health condition will prevent you from taking needed action. 

They may say that you are no longer welcome in their office because of your behavior – or the way they think you *might* behave because of assumptions that they make about people who have the same diagnosis.

Although it is very difficult to use the law to force a medical provider to provide a particular treatment – and you likely would not want to go to a doctor who is being forced to do something that he or she doesn’t really want to do – health care providers ARE obligated to follow the reasonable accommodations requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

If you are having a problem with a health care provider, and you believe that you are being treated differently because of your mental health condition, call CLRP.




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