A young professional finally musters the courage to call about therapy and is told the waitlist is fourteen months, and she wonders how she is supposed to stay functional for fourteen months when she can barely make it through each day now. A father tries to find a psychiatrist for his son and discovers that no psychiatrists in his city are accepting new patients, that the referral his family doctor made six months ago has gone nowhere, that the system everyone assures him exists seems designed to prevent anyone from accessing it.

A young professional sits in her car in the parking lot of her workplace, unable to bring herself to walk through the doors, her anxiety so overwhelming that even the thought of the conversations waiting inside makes her chest tighten and her breath shallow. She knows she needs help, has known for months, but when she called her family doctor, the earliest appointment was three weeks away. When she finally saw her doctor and received a referral to a psychiatrist, the wait was eight months.