PsyPact is an interstate compact that allows psychologists in participating states to treat patients across state lines. Forty-four states are part of PsyPact, and Massachusetts isn’t one of them. But that could soon change, pending the passage of statehouse legislation.
Falmouth resident Gwyneth Packard recently launched a grassroots campaign to advocate for the passage of PsyPact in Massachusetts, because right now, most psychologists here cannot keep seeing their patients when either of them crosses state lines.
“I've heard from so many people who not only had no idea that this was going on, but could not believe it,” she said.
And it’s not a technology problem—access to mental health care via telehealth has only grown in recent years. It’s a legal problem.
Packard said both her adult children experienced this. When her youngest went off to college in New York, they could no longer see the therapist they had back home.
“The therapist, who had been a really tough find—it had taken us a while to find somebody who really worked well and was making great progress—apologized and said that she was not going to be able to see my kid when they crossed the state line,” she said.
Packard did some research, learned about PsyPact, and saw there were already efforts going on to get Massachusetts on board. So, her child went ahead and found a new therapist in New York, and Packard forgot about it for a while.
But this summer, Packard’s older child told her they were struggling with something similar.
“They would really love to be able to use therapy as a tool right now, but it was pretty much impossible to find somebody with all of this travel for their highly stressful job, because the law was still in place,” she said. “I was like, you're kidding, still? I'm going to try to take care of this.”
Packard put up a website and got to work printing postcards and spreading the word.
“I'd talk to anybody who sat still long enough,” she said.
Legislation has been filed at the state house to get Massachusetts to join PsyPact. It was added as an amendment to the Mass. Senate’s economic development bill.
“Our providers want to serve their patients without interruption,” Senator Cynthia Creem said in a Senate session in July. “Our patients want to keep the clinicians they trust.”
Creem is a Democrat representing Norfolk and Middlesex.
Senators ended up voting to adopt the amendment. The bill is now in a conference committee. If the amendment makes it into the final version of the bill and it passes, Massachusetts could join PsyPact.
State Senator Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat representing Barnstable and Plymouth, said he thinks the bill could pass as early as this month, though January 1 is the hard deadline before it dies.
“We're pushing really hard to make sure that this gets passed into law to expand healthcare access across Massachusetts and particularly here on the Cape and Islands,” he said.
For years, Cape Cod has had a shortage of health care providers, particularly mental health care, and especially for youth. PsyPact would expand access to care in more remote areas like the Cape and Islands, because patients could be treated via telehealth by clinicians in other participating PsyPact states.
Dr. Peter Oppenheimer is a psychologist licensed in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and he’s Rhode Island's commissioner to the PsyPact Interjurisdictional Compact.
“Someone who has a very specialty practice can make themselves available, but basically nationwide,” he said. “And also, if you need to see someone who speaks a particular foreign language, you have a better chance of finding that through PsyPact than perhaps in your local community.”
Oppenheimer said that for anyone leaving Massachusetts for a big change—like starting a new school, or settling in a new job—PsyPact would allow them to keep one very important thing constant: their therapist.
Dr. Diana Westerberg is a psychologist here and the chair of the Massachusetts Psychological Association’s advocacy committee. She says one of the biggest issues her committee members have been bringing up is that the state isn’t part of PsyPact.
“What's happening right now is psychologists are having to take the time to get licensed into any state where their patient is moving to be able to continue care, or they have to end services,” she said.
Westerberg, Oppenheimer, Fernandes, and Packard all say they have not found any opposition to PsyPact, so it’s likely to pass in Massachusetts soon. But when it comes to mental health care access in more remote areas like the Cape and Islands, PsyPact won’t solve everything.
That’s according to Karen Penta, clinical director for Cape Behavioral Health.
“We are definitely the largest provider on Cape Cod,” she said. “Our waitlists are not necessarily very long. The problem is we just can't meet the needs and the demands.”
Penta says her organization is trying to increase access to mental health care on Cape as much as possible, but the high cost of living here makes it difficult.
“It's hard to recruit qualified, licensed people to actually be able to work in this field because they need to find adequate housing and be able to raise a family,” she said.
Penta says she’s seeing an increase in people on the Cape seeking in-person care, and she doesn’t think Massachusetts joining PsyPact would make a big dent in that rising need. But still, she says, she’s in favor of the legislation passing.
“Any way we can get someone help, even if it's from someone out of state, that's a win,” she said.
