Jesse Zhang for NPR and KHN

Jesse Zhang for NPR and KHN

Rachel and her husband adopted Marcus out of Guatemalan foster care as a 7-month-old infant and brought him home to Lansing, Mich. With a round face framed by a full head of dark hair, Marcus was giggly and verbal — learning names of sea animals off flashcards, impressing other adults.

But in preschool, Marcus began resisting school, throwing himself on the ground, or pretending to be sick — refusals that got more intense and difficult to deal with. His parents sought therapy for him. Rachel and her husband had some savings for retirement, college and emergencies; at first, the cost of Marcus’s therapy was not an issue. “We didn’t realize where it was going,” Rachel says.

Today Marcus is 15 and has a younger sibling. His parents have depleted their savings and gone into debt to pay for treatments for his severe depression, anxiety and mood disorders. Frequently agitated and increasingly violent, Marcus could not attend a regular school. Over the years, he’s needed weekly therapy, hospitalization and specialized schooling — all of which has cost tens of thousands of dollars a month.

He required lots of medical and mental health appointments that were often many miles from the family’s home. Rachel ultimately quit her real estate broker’s job to care for her son, and with that the family took another financial hit. With no good treatment options within hours of where they live, Marcus is now in residential care out of state that specializes in therapy for children with conditions like his. That’s helped modulate his behavior, but also costs $12,500 a month.

“All of our savings is gone,” says Rachel, who requested anonymity to protect her son’s privacy. She and her husband have taken out a second mortgage and borrowed against their retirement accounts.

“How are we going to send our kids to school?” she says. “How are we going to recover from this? I don’t know.” Just surviving the string of crises is all-consuming. “Those thoughts in your mind — there’s no space for that when you are just trying to keep your child alive.”

Untold numbers of families like Rachel’s are dealing with myriad challenges finding and paying for mental health care, and then ending up in debt. …….

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/19/1125446666/debt-mental-health-care-u-s-families