Divorce can create difficult financial questions when you already rely on ongoing mental health care. You may worry about how to keep paying for treatment while adjusting to changes in your household finances, especially if those expenses take up a meaningful part of your budget.
Here are the key points to understand about how ongoing care can affect your case.
Treatment costs can be part of the financial analysis
Ongoing mental health treatment costs can factor into a spousal support determination. Colorado law requires courts to consider each spouse’s health, including significant health care needs and unreimbursed expenses, when determining maintenance.
That consideration can matter when continuing care affects what you need to meet your reasonable expenses. For example, regular therapy or psychiatric care could create a recurring expense that reduces the income available for other necessities.
The costs must reflect ongoing financial needs
Ongoing care can carry more weight when it creates a continuing expense that affects your ability to meet your needs. You may have recurring costs for:
- Therapy sessions
- Psychiatric appointments
- Prescribed treatment
- Other continuing mental health care
The focus should remain on how those expenses affect your actual financial needs rather than on establishing a diagnosis through an evaluation.
Documentation can support the expense
Records showing what you actually pay for continuing care can help demonstrate its effect on your budget. Useful records may include treatment bills, receipts, insurance statements and proof of unreimbursed amounts.
Keeping these records also helps distinguish the cost of care from the question of whether you have a particular mental health condition. That distinction matters because the type of evidence used to establish treatment expenses differs from evidence concerning a mental health evaluation.
Treatment costs are not considered in isolation
These expenses form only one part of the broader maintenance analysis. Colorado courts also consider factors such as each spouse’s income, financial resources, employment and ability to meet reasonable needs.
Make ongoing care part of the financial picture
Ongoing care can affect your budget, and the costs you personally carry may matter when you seek spousal support. Before a hearing or negotiation, organize records that show your continuing expenses and what insurance does not cover. An attorney can review those records with you and explain how they may fit into your maintenance case.