A Big Challenge: The Tension Between Compassion and Costs
There are a number of virtues that underlie the mental health field. Perhaps the greatest one is compassion. The vast majority of clinicians are compassionate people. They provide care at discounted rates to those in need. Some even provide free or pro bono services. However, the reality is that many clinicians cannot afford to give as much as they would like because they have real costs like rent, electricity, and other bills.
As a result, there is a natural tension between compassion and costs. Our mental health system has not really found a way to scale compassion without also scaling corresponding costs.
This is where peer support volunteer services like 7 Cups can play a role. We have not told this story in the past in this level of detail. We feel it is important to begin to tell this story as it better highlights the work all of you dedicate yourselves towards. It also shows how the tension between cost and compassion can be decreased.
7 Cups has reached over 73 million people. Over 570,000 volunteer listeners have provided 35,011,527 hours of support across 189 countries in 140 languages. Think about this, 35m + hours is the equivalent to:
1,458,813 Days
208,402 Weeks
3,997 Years, supporting those in need
If you were to begin to put a cost on these services it would look like this.
@ $1/hour = $35,011,527.33 ($35M)
@ $5/hour = $175,057,636.65 ($175M)
@ $10/hour = $350,115,273.30 ($350M)
@ $25/hour = $875,288,183.25 ($875M)
@ $50/hour = $1,750,576,366.50 ($1.75B)
@ $75/hour = $2,625,864,549.75 ($2.63B)
@ $100/hour = $3,501,152,733.00 ($3.50B)
@ $150/hour = $5,251,729,099.50 ($5.25B)
We all know the statistics. We are losing a person to suicide every 40 seconds. Depression, anxiety, addiction rates are all up and climbing. The solution is compassionate care. Compassion is indeed the best medicine.
How do we scale compassion?
Clinicians donating their time can help address the challenge. Free and volunteer support services can also play a key role. There are likely other solutions as well. Broadly, it is clear that we need increased compassion to help address our collective mental health challenges.
@GlenM but i feel listeners should get paid atleast little bit to keep them motivated and encourage them to do better
Perhaps if we lived in a society which valued the collective well-being of all, and ensured everyone had their basic needs as a matter of human rights, we would not be facing such severe and on-going mental health crises in society, as we do in our individualistic, isolating society whose sole definition of success is how much wealth one can hoard for oneself. We might get somewhere if address what's underlying our mental health deterioration as a society, like the fact a full time job can't even guarantee shelter or food anymore.
Rather than expecting compassionate people to sacrifice even more, perhaps we could focus on how to create a society where people are in such desperate need in the first place, where such sacrifice isn't a requirement to prevent the loss of even more life. It's hard to be mentally healthy when one financial mistake can put most of us on the street, and then in prison for existing outdoors, lacking basic needs, harassed by law enforcement and those who think poor people deserve their fate as some moral failing in order to abdicate responsibility as a social being to help our fellow humans.
Perhaps a society where people are in such on-going despair and hopelessness that they see no other way to end their suffering than to not exist is a society in need of not just reform, but a fundamental rethinking from the ground up.
how to create a society where people aren't* in such desperate need in the first place
@GlenM
at our worst with trying to end it many times. it was not the mental health system that helped us it was ones online did it for free. we feel that peer support is really more helpful. as one who has mental health issues. will understand far better then one who never struggled with mental health issues. this true with abuse by far. yes no two pwople abused in same ways as each has own expedites but we can related to others better as we been in the middle of it too.
also think peers are more compassionate too. as they do it without a piece on the support. some mental health workers only see a person as a number sadly. so yes places like 7 cups are needed and well we see the compassion others have on here a lot too.
so agree fully with post too
we some time ago did peer support offline and done it many years online. we believe can not put a price on support and compaction at all
@GlenM
Thank you for sharing this insightful perspective on the balance between compassion and costs in the mental health field. As someone who is starting out on 7 Cups, it’s inspiring to see how volunteer services can bridge the gap by offering millions of hours of compassionate listening. The impact that free, accessible support can have on people’s lives is profound.
The statistics are sobering, but they also highlight just how important compassionate care is in addressing mental health challenges. Scaling compassion is undoubtedly a complex issue, but initiatives like 7 Cups are helping to make a real difference by providing support where it's most needed. It's heartening to know that efforts are being made to ensure that more people can receive the help they deserve.
