getting through itlast verified 2026-10-23

how long is the wait for a psychiatrist?

you finally decided to call. the first number was wrong, the second went to voicemail, the third was not taking new patients, and the fourth offered a date two months out. that is not bad luck. it is close to what researchers find when they pose as patients and call down the same lists you are calling. here is what they measured, where the waits are shorter, what the studies cannot see, and what exists while you wait.

this page is part of veisund (formerly Resolv Social), a free, anonymous peer-support community with a sourced library on psychiatric medications.

if you are in danger right now, this is the wrong page: call or text 988, or call 911.[19]

what happens when researchers call the list

the best evidence comes from secret-shopper studies: researchers pose as new patients, call psychiatrists listed in an insurer’s directory, and record what happens. each one is a snapshot of particular cities, insurers and years, so they are listed here one by one rather than averaged.

wherepublishedwho was calledgot an appointmentwait
boston, houston, chicago[1]2015360 psychiatrists, insurer directory26%not reported
washington, d.c.[5]2017150 psychiatrists, 3 carriers15% acceptingaverage 19 days; 7% within two weeks
ny, ca, nd, va, wy[2]2022 calls948 psychiatrists18.5% availablemedian 67 days in person, 43 telehealth
nyc, la, chicago, phoenix (medicaid)[3]2023 calls320 prescribers27.2%median 11 (phoenix) to 64 days (la)
de, mt, nj, ri, va (commercial)[4]2025-26 calls5,822 calls23.6% of answered calls; 12.4% of allmean 22.5 days (psychiatry)
ohio, teenagers[7]2015498 waits, 140 officesn/amedian 50 days
five cities, child psychiatrists[8]2017312 child psychiatrists17%30 days longer than pediatricians

the newest is the largest. between october 2025 and march 2026, researchers made 5,822 calls to psychiatrists and psychologists listed by the biggest commercial insurer in five states. 61.3 percent of the calls could not even be evaluated, mostly because nobody but a machine picked up. of the calls that reached someone, 23.6 percent ended in an appointment with the listed clinician; counting every first attempt, it was 12.4 percent. psychiatry waits averaged 22.5 days, psychology 17.3.[4]

why so many calls go nowhere

the directories are a big part of it. HHS’s inspector general found that, on average, 55 percent of the behavioral health providers listed in medicare advantage networks, and 28 percent in medicaid networks, did not provide a single service to a plan member in 2023, and that 72 percent of those inactive providers should not have been listed at all.[13] in oregon medicaid, 67.4 percent of listed mental health prescribers saw fewer than five medicaid patients in a year.[11] in washington, d.c., only 51 percent of listed psychiatrists had a working, correct phone number.[5]

insurance is the other part. in 2009-2010, 55.3 percent of psychiatrists accepted private insurance and 43.1 percent accepted medicaid, against 88.7 and 73.0 percent of other doctors.[10] in an audit of patients sent from an emergency department, 67 percent of privately insured callers who reached a person got an appointment, against 33 percent of medicaid callers.[6] ohio teenagers on medicaid waited longer than those with private insurance.[7]

how many places are short of psychiatrists?

as of september 30, 2026, HRSA counted 7,127 mental health professional shortage areas, home to 154.6 million people, with 26.24 percent of the need met; it would take 7,796 more practitioners to lift every designation.[14] those designations are mostly based on the ratio of people to psychiatrists alone, so they do not count psychologists, therapists or nurse practitioners in the area.[14]

HRSA’s projections get worse before they get better. on its baseline demand, the supply of adult psychiatrists covered 84.5 percent of demand in 2023 and is projected to cover 50.9 percent in 2037; outside metro areas, 40.5 percent falling to 25.5 percent. child and adolescent psychiatry goes from 84.3 to 62.1 percent. the counterweight is psychiatric nurse practitioners, whose supply is projected to exceed demand by 2037, at 108.6 percent.[15]

what about minnesota?

we looked for a primary source that measures how long minnesotans wait for a first psychiatric appointment and did not find one. none of the national call studies above called minnesota, and none of the 20 counties in the inspector general’s survey are in the state.[12] what the federal data does show: 150 mental health shortage designations in minnesota covering 2,709,724 people, with 24.28 percent of the need met,[14] and adult psychiatrist supply projected to fall from 75.3 percent of demand in 2023 to 50.7 percent in 2037.[15] one older point in the state’s favour: in 2009-2010, midwest psychiatrists were more likely than others to accept private insurance, at 85.1 percent.[10] county crisis lines and local options are on mental health in minnesota.

the other direction: where waits are shorter, and what the studies miss

not every wait is two months. medicaid callers in phoenix waited a median of 11 days.[3] telepsychiatry appointments came 24 days sooner than in-person ones in the same five-state study,[2] and mental health facilities offering telehealth had a median wait of 14 days for a first telehealth visit.[16] among medicare and medicaid providers who were taking new patients, about 48 percent said they could see one within 7 days, and 24 percent said more than 30.[12]

the limits of the call studies cut both ways:

and a federal rule is coming: for medicaid managed care rating periods beginning on or after july 9, 2027, state standards must cap the wait for a routine outpatient mental health appointment at 10 business days.[12] a standard is not the same as a measured result.

what exists while you wait

in the 2025 national survey, 44.9 percent of adults with an unmet need for mental health treatment said they did not know how or where to get it.[17] so, the routes, with no advice about medication; that belongs with a prescriber who knows you.

where veisund fits

veisund is anonymous peer support. it is not treatment, it is not a clinician, it is not a crisis service, and it does not shorten anyone’s wait. what it is: a place to post, under a handle you pick, while you are on the list, where people who have sat on the same lists can answer. sometimes that is how you hear which clinic actually picks up the phone. what happens when you post says how it works and what we cannot promise.

questions people ask

How long is the wait to see a psychiatrist?

There is no national figure; no federal survey measures it. In secret-shopper studies, median waits for a first psychiatric appointment ranged from 11 days for Medicaid callers in Phoenix to 64 days in Los Angeles (2023), and were 67 days for in-person and 43 days for telehealth appointments across five states (2022). A 2026 study of commercial plans in five states found a mean of 22.5 days for psychiatry. The bigger problem is getting any appointment: across these studies, callers got one 11 to 27 percent of the time.

Why is it so hard to get a psychiatrist appointment?

In the call studies, the most common reasons were that the psychiatrist was not taking new patients, the listed number was wrong, or nobody answered. HHS-OIG found that on average 55 percent of behavioral health providers listed in Medicare Advantage networks, and 28 percent in Medicaid networks, did not see a single plan enrollee in 2023. Psychiatrists also accept insurance less often than other doctors: 55.3 percent took private insurance in 2009-2010, against 88.7 percent of other physicians.

Is telehealth faster?

In the one study that compared them directly, yes: across 948 psychiatrists in five states in 2022, the median wait was 43 days for a telepsychiatry appointment against 67 days in person. In a national 2022-2023 secret-shopper survey of mental health facilities, the median wait for a first telehealth appointment was 14 days. Telehealth does not remove the problem of finding a clinician who is taking new patients.

How long is the wait for a child psychiatrist?

Longer, in the studies that measured it. In Ohio, the median wait for a 14-year-old was 50 days, longer under Medicaid than private insurance. In five US cities, callers got an appointment with 17 percent of child psychiatrists, against 40 percent of pediatricians. During COVID, appointments with child psychiatrists listed in one insurer’s database were available 11 percent of the time.

How long is the wait for a psychiatrist in Minnesota?

We could not find a primary source that measures it. What exists: HRSA lists 150 mental-health shortage designations in Minnesota covering 2.7 million people as of September 2026, and projects Minnesota’s supply of adult psychiatrists at 75.3 percent of demand in 2023 falling to 50.7 percent by 2037. The national studies on this page did not include Minnesota callers.

What can I do while I wait for a psychiatrist?

If you are in danger, call or text 988 or call 911; that is what they are for. Otherwise, the record points to a few routes that often move faster: a primary care clinician, a federally funded community health center (3.1 million people got mental health care at one in 2025, and federal rules require a sliding fee scale), telehealth, and asking to be put on a cancellation list. This page does not tell anyone to start, stop or change a medication; those decisions belong with a prescriber who knows you.

Is veisund a way to get care faster?

No. veisund is anonymous peer support, not treatment, and it does not shorten any wait. It is a place to post while you wait, where other people who have been on the same waitlists can answer. It is not a clinician and not a crisis service.

sources

every number above was read on the cited page (pubmed, pmc, oig.hhs.gov, data.hrsa.gov, samhsa.gov) on 2026-10-23.

  1. Malowney M, Keltz S, Fischer D, Boyd JW. Availability of outpatient care from psychiatrists: a simulated-patient study in three U.S. cities. Psychiatric Services 2015;66(1):94-96. Callers posing as patients rang 360 psychiatrists listed in a major insurer’s database in Boston, Houston and Chicago (120 per city): “appointments were made with 93 psychiatrists (26%). Significant differences were noted between cities but not between payer type.” PMID 25322445. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201400051
  2. Sun CF, Correll CU, Trestman RL, et al. Low availability, long wait times, and high geographic disparity of psychiatric outpatient care in the US. General Hospital Psychiatry 2023;84:12-17. Mystery-shopper calls to 948 psychiatrists in New York, California, North Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming, May to July 2022: “18.5% of psychiatrists were available to see new patients with a significantly longer wait time for in-person than telepsychiatry appointments (median = 67.0 days vs median = 43.0 days)”; the most frequent reason for unavailability was “provider not taking new patients (53.9%).” PMID 37290263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2023.05.012
  3. Brahmbhatt D, Schpero WL. Access to psychiatric appointments for Medicaid enrollees in 4 large US cities. JAMA 2024;332(8):668-669. Research letter: 320 prescribing clinicians listed by the largest Medicaid managed care plans in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Phoenix, called May to July 2023. “Across the 320 clinician offices called, 87 (27.2%) had appointments available”; “Median wait times were 11 days (IQR, 6-20 days) in Phoenix, 23 days (IQR, 9-35 days) in Chicago, 28 days (IQR, 11-84 days) in New York, and 64 days (IQR, 24-126 days) in Los Angeles.” Read in full text on PMC. PMID 39083249. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11292564/
  4. Haeder S, Lou Y, Xu W, Miller BF. Mental health ghost networks in commercial insurance plans. JAMA Health Forum 2026;7(10):e263746. 5,822 secret-shopper calls to psychiatrists and psychologists in the largest commercial carrier’s directory in five states, October 2025 to March 2026: 3,570 (61.3%) nonevaluable, mostly an answering machine or automated system; of 2,252 evaluable calls, “23.6% (95% CI, 21.9%-25.4%) resulted in a scheduled appointment with the listed clinician”; “Mean wait time was 20.5 days… with longer waits for psychiatry than psychology (22.5 vs 17.3 days)”; “Across all initial call attempts, only 12.4% resulted in an appointment.” PMID 42886497. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.3746
  5. Blech B, West JC, Yang Z, et al. Availability of network psychiatrists among the largest health insurance carriers in Washington, D.C. Psychiatric Services 2017;68(9):962-965. 50 psychiatrists drawn from each of three carriers’ directories: “Fifteen percent of the psychiatrists were accepting new outpatients with the target insurance, with average wait times of 19 days; only 7% were able to schedule an appointment within two weeks”; “51% of the psychiatrists had working telephone numbers verified to be correct.” Authors were American Psychiatric Association staff. PMID 28457210. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201600454
  6. Rhodes KV, Vieth TL, Kushner H, Levy H, Asplin BR. Referral without access: for psychiatric services, wait for the beep. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2009;54(2):272-278. Audit calls in nine metropolitan areas posing as patients referred from an emergency department for depression: “In 45% of 322 calls to mental health clinics, the research assistant reached an answering machine”; “67% of privately insured and 33% of Medicaid callers were able to make an appointment, for overall appointment rates of 22% and 12%, respectively.” PMID 18950898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2008.08.023
  7. Steinman KJ, Shoben AB, Dembe AE, Kelleher KJ. How long do adolescents wait for psychiatry appointments? Community Mental Health Journal 2015;51(7):782-789. Ohio, callers posing as parents of a 14-year-old: “we measured 498 wait times at 140 unique offices. The median wait time was 50 days (interquartile range = 29-81 days)”; Medicaid waits were longer than private, “especially during the spring (geometric mean = 50.9 vs. 41.9 days)”; by region, geometric means ranged “from 22.4 to 75.1 days.” PMID 26108305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9897-x
  8. Cama S, Malowney M, Smith AJB, et al. Availability of outpatient mental health care by pediatricians and child psychiatrists in five U.S. cities. International Journal of Health Services 2017;47(4):621-635. 601 pediatricians and 312 child psychiatrists called: “Appointments were obtained with 40% of the pediatricians and 17% of the child psychiatrists. The mean wait time for psychiatry appointments was 30 days longer than for pediatric appointments”; the most common barrier was an incorrect listed number. PMID 28474997. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731417707492
  9. Chen V, Barrera CA, Golden K, et al. Availability of outpatient child psychiatric care during COVID-19: a simulated-patient study in three U.S. cities. Psychiatric Services 2023;74(12):1277-1280. 322 psychiatrists listed in a major insurer’s database: “Initial appointments were available 11% of the time, and it was most difficult to obtain an appointment under Medicaid coverage. Nineteen percent of phone numbers were wrong, and 25% of psychiatrists were not accepting new patients.” PMID 37287227. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20220623
  10. Bishop TF, Press MJ, Keyhani S, Pincus HA. Acceptance of insurance by psychiatrists and the implications for access to mental health care. JAMA Psychiatry 2014;71(2):176-181. National physician survey data, 2009-2010: psychiatrists accepted private insurance at 55.3% vs 88.7% for other physicians, Medicare at 54.8% vs 86.1%, Medicaid at 43.1% vs 73.0%; psychiatrists in the Midwest were more likely to accept private noncapitated insurance (85.1%). PMID 24337499. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.2862
  11. Zhu JM, Charlesworth CJ, Polsky D, McConnell KJ. Phantom networks: discrepancies between reported and realized mental health care access in Oregon Medicaid. Health Affairs 2022;41(7):1013-1022. 2018 directory listings matched to claims: “58.2 percent of network directory listings were ‘phantom’ providers who did not see Medicaid patients, including 67.4 percent of mental health prescribers.” “Phantom” is a claims threshold (fewer than five Medicaid patients in the year), not a fictitious clinician. PMID 35787079. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00052
  12. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. Availability of surveyed behavioral health providers to treat new patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. OEI-09-21-00410, June 2025. 707 telephone surveys of providers who billed Medicare or Medicaid, 20 counties in 10 states, August to September 2023; waits are as reported by the providers’ offices, not measured by callers. “Forty-five percent of surveyed behavioral health providers reported that they were not available to treat new patients”; among those available, “24 percent reported appointment wait times of more than 30 calendar days. About 5 percent of providers had wait times of 90 days or longer”; “about 48 percent of available providers could treat a new patient within 7 days.” From rating periods beginning on or after July 9, 2027, state wait-time standards for Medicaid managed care “must be no longer than 10 business days for routine outpatient mental health and substance use disorder appointments.” https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2025/availability-of-surveyed-behavioral-health-providers-to-treat-new-patients-enrolled-in-medicare-and-medicaid/
  13. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. Many Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans have limited behavioral health provider networks and inactive providers. OEI-02-23-00540, October 2025. 60 plans in 10 counties: “On average, in Medicare Advantage, 55 percent of behavioral health providers listed in plans’ networks did not provide a single service to enrollees in 2023. In Medicaid, an average of 28 percent”; “72 percent of the inactive providers should not have been listed as network providers in the plan directories.” https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2025/many-medicare-advantage-and-medicaid-managed-care-plans-have-limited-behavioral-health-provider-networks-and-inactive-providers/
  14. Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Workforce. Designated HPSA quarterly summary, fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, as of September 30, 2026. Mental health HPSAs: 7,127 designations, 154,557,656 people in them, 26.24% of need met, 7,796 practitioners needed to remove the designations. Minnesota: 150 designations, 2,709,724 people, 24.28% of need met, 123 practitioners needed. Footnote: “most mental health HPSA designations are currently based on the psychiatrists only to population ratio,” which “does not take into account the availability of additional mental health services provided by other” providers. Generated from data.hrsa.gov on 2026-10-23. https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas
  15. Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. Workforce projections, full data file (FY2025 release, base year 2023), baseline demand scenario; percent adequacy is supply divided by demand. Adult psychiatry, US: 39,510 FTE supply vs 46,760 demand in 2023 (84.5%), 36,400 vs 71,550 in 2037 (50.9%); nonmetro 40.5% in 2023 and 25.5% in 2037. Child and adolescent psychiatry, US: 84.3% in 2023, 62.1% in 2037. Psychiatric nurse practitioners, US: 22,610 vs 22,700 in 2023, 36,860 vs 33,950 in 2037 (108.6%). Minnesota adult psychiatry: 670 vs 890 (75.3%) in 2023, 690 vs 1,360 (50.7%) in 2037; child and adolescent: 69.2% and 60.6%. Read from the data file on 2026-10-23. https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/workforce-projections
  16. Cantor J, Schuler MS, Matthews S, et al. Availability of mental telehealth services in the US. JAMA Health Forum 2024;5(2):e235142. National secret-shopper survey of mental health treatment facilities, December 2022 to March 2023: “Of the 1221 facilities (87%) accepting new patients, 980 (80%) reported offering telehealth”; “Median (range) wait time for first telehealth appointment was 14 (4-75) days.” Facilities, not individual psychiatrists. PMID 38306092. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.5142
  17. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: annual national report (PEP26-07-010), July 2026. “Of the 54.6 million adults aged 18 or older in 2025 who had AMI in the past year… slightly less than half (26.9 million people) did not receive mental health treatment”; of those, “21.4 percent (or 5.6 million people) perceived an unmet need”; reasons included cost (61.4 percent) and not knowing how or where to get treatment (44.9 percent). NSDUH does not measure wait times. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt57150/2025-nsduh-annual-national-report.pdf
  18. Health Resources and Services Administration. Uniform Data System, national health center program data, 2025 reporting period. Total patients served: 32,746,392; mental health patients: 3,079,683 (9.40%), up from 2,659,308 in 2021. Read on data.hrsa.gov on 2026-10-23. https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/data-reporting/program-data/national
  19. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 988 frequently asked questions: the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline “was relaunched in July 2022 as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.” Read 2026-10-23. https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/988/faqs

related: free therapy: what exists and how to get it · how to find the right therapist · mental health help without going to the hospital · mental health in minnesota

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