B724 : Mental Health

Background information

Mental health is a state of wellbeing, and mental health disorder is a condition that has affected people of all ages particularly the adults both in local and state levels across the globe. Mental health challenges make it impossible for a person to attain his/her ideal mental health. The American public health association, APHA endorses efforts with the aim of improving access to care as well as have mental health on top (Mental health, 2018). The Affordable Care Act, ACT expounded the coverage on mental health by making it unlawful to deny insurance for a person with already existing conditions such as mental disorder (Beronio et al., 2014). The Act also expanded parity where health plans should have mental health as well as substance abuse medication on the same level alongside other medical plus surgical care. In addition, the public health endorses impartiality as a way of achieving justice in health plus therapy. They also talk of the reason for better access to psychiatric health care with the aim of addressing problems such as suicide and gun violence.

Options to solve the issue of mental health

To attain true parity in mental health coverage as well as good care, lawmakers at both the federal as well as state levels are supposed to:

1.    Come up with detailed parity policies in all levels.
2.    Push the state for the real meaning of medical need which sets an urgency on clinical training as well as utilizing behavioural health treatment model.
3.    Support strict enforcement, transparent needs as well as implementation
4.    Fund plus capitalise in study relating to EBPs involving equality for all plus insurance policies for firms.
5.    Community personnel plus consumers need education on psychiatric health equality as well as federal policy regarding the needs for equality.
6.    Provide incentive for those working as well as entering the mental health field.
7.    The public health agencies need to put programs as well as policies in a position involving fairness in education, mental health, and insurance policies.
8.    Also, the mental health agencies should enable health experts to be conversant with mental health plus substance abuse.

Psychosocial rehabilitation as an ideal way to solve the issue of mental health

Psychosocial rehabilitation offers persons with mental health problems to reach optimum levels of functioning in the community (Clement et al., 2018). The process not only improves an individual’s competencies but also introduces environmental changes. The techniques of psychosocial rehabilitation vary from a person’s needs, the community where rehabilitation is provided, as well as the cultural and socioeconomic aspects of the nation wherein it’s pursued. Vocational rehabilitation, social support networks, housing, and employment are all connected to psychosocial rehabilitation. The rationale of rehabilitation is consumer empowerment, the development of a person’s social competence, reduction of stigma as well as discrimination among other functions.  Psychosocial rehabilitation is a component of comprehensive community based mental health care (Gu et al., 2015). Its models have been developed in some countries using primary care, community supervisors, back up psychiatric support as well as factory rehabilitation intervention. Rehabilitation allows persons with mental disability to regain or acquire practical skills essential for living plus interacting in the community. It also teaches those with a mental disorder to cope with their condition. Psychosocial rehabilitation includes an array of activities such as assisting people with mental disorder to develop social skills, develop an interest as well as leisure activities which can create a sense of participation as well as personal growth (Thornicroft, 2015). Activities of daily living like cooking, personal hygiene and housekeeping are also taught in psychosocial development.

Impact of mental health on the health care delivery system

Psychiatric health care should be a crucial part of the health care system across the globe, but such an idea is not always the case. The following are some of the impacts of mental health on the health care delivery system.

Lack of funding

The federal governments especially that of America is making efforts to provide funds for mental health care. Some time back, an appropriation bill allocated over $110 million towards mental health initiatives (World Health Organization, 2014). Unfortunately, in some parts of the nation available mental health resources are nowhere to be found.

Lack of minimum standards.

Lack of minimum standards makes it difficult especially when determining if a treatment is safe and effective. More people with mental problems might pass in different systems like juvenile justice which offer mental health services (Thornicroft, 2015). Such groups don’t coordinate with one another to provide the best care possible.

Conclusion:

Almost 20% of adults in America face mental health condition within a year, where about 1/25 adults go through severe mental conditions that impact their way of life. Therefore, mental health care needs to be a prominent part of health care systems not only in America but across the globe.

References:

Beronio, K., Po, R., Skopec, L., & Glied, S. (2014). Affordable Care Act will expand mental health and substance use disorder benefits and parity protections for 62 million Americans. Mental Health, 2.

Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., & Cooney, G. (2018). Exercise and mental health: a complex and challenging relationship. The Lancet Psychiatry.

Gu, J., Strauss, C., Bond, R., & Cavanagh, K. (2015). How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of mediation studies. Clinical psychology review, 37, 1-12.

Mental Health. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/mental-health

Thornicroft, G. (2015). What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychological medicine, 45(1), 11-27.

World Health Organization. (2014). Social determinants of mental health. World Health Organization.