Improving Access And Service Quality Of Mental Health Care

This assignment will define and analyse the need for a chosen service improvement within the pathway of mental health, as well as evaluating the suggested service. Demonstrating how this service can inform and benefit integrated practice, discussing the ways in which the agency’s statutory obligations and responsibilities impact on both individual and group decision making. The chosen service improvement for this assignment is the introduction of a mental health nurse into primary care services, for example, a GP Surgery. Focusing on service users with mental health issues in the community and therefore in the care of the local Primary Care Trust (PCT).

A national strategy for promoting mental wellbeing and mental health is No Health Without Mental Health.

One of the biggest contributors for poor healthcare is the stigma against mental health. This stigma allows healthcare providers to view those with a mental illness as having low relevance, thus creating disinclination towards providing adequate resources and/or care. This negative stance, based on misinformation and prejudice creates those that have a mental illness to lose their self confidence. Because of this loss, people with mental illness decide not to contribute to their health or livelihood. In the past fifty years, many advances have been made in mental healthcare. However, with the attached stigma, many people choose to not seek out treatment.

Apart from medical technology and medications, the housing treatment has played a great role in improving the treatment of mental illness since the early 1990s. First and foremost, in the past the patients of mental illness were treated as prisoners by being isolated in hospitals or asylums but now they are treated as normal human beings with great care and respect. Secondly, in the past the patients stayed in the hospitals for long periods of time, whereas nowadays patients stay in their home community for most treatments. Only in severe cases, such as violent patients or those who cause harm to themselves may be required to stay in hospitals or more intense observation. Another form of housing treatment is community treatment in which the patients are treated in a friendly way while in

According to the World Health Organization, mental illness will affect approximately 25% of people at some point in their life (“WHO Qualityrights”, n.d.). Despite that, the current mental health care system in the United States is inadequate. Many aspects of the system need improving, especially the barriers to service. In fact, approximately 20% of individuals are left without necessary treatment for their mental health disorder (“Mental Health”, 2016). Mentally ill individuals have difficulty accessing necessary mental health care services for various reasons; insurance, socioeconomic status, and mental health stigma can all function as barriers to treatment. Insurance discrimination can make it difficult for individuals to find treatment (Han, Call, Pintor, Alarcon-Espinoza, & Simon, 2015). Gaps in insurance coverage can also be a barrier, as they disrupt the long-term treatment process (Gulley, Rasch, & Chan 2011). Socioeconomic status has been found to negatively affect appointment scheduling (Kugelmass, 2016). Finally, stigma in our society can also stop people from seeking out treatment that they need (Bathje & Pryor, 2011). The mental health system in the United States is not capable of caring for the mentally ill, as insurance, socioeconomic status, and perceived stigma all act as barriers that prevent people from receiving the treatment they need.

The health and social care act 2001 says that there is an importance to involve and to consult service users/ patients which can help shape and create their own care plans. Which can result in more and more individuals who are suffering from a mental health issue/ problem can access the services as they won’t feel like they are being discriminated against. The mental capacity act 2005 and the mental health act 2007 says that the reason behind involving service users is to overcome some initial barriers of the more traditional services and this was outlined in some of the current developments that are happening within these laws. The mental capacity and mental health act shows that there will be the removal of the standard traditional service so they can move forward and introduce a more approachable service which enabled service users and communities to become more

The solution to the problem is to provide sufficient funding to the community-based mental health system so people could be helped before they become part of the prison system. Services like medication therapy and monitoring, residential services, rehabilitation services and support services are successful in bringing the severely mentally ill back to communities. As a rule, community services are also less expensive. Instead, we see mental health agencies being closed and stripped of their budgets. As a result the mentally ill have no place to go for treatment and support.

The healing hands health rights campaign is an initiative by ANTaR which was launched in February 2004. The campaign itself is an effective way of promoting health as a fundamental human right issue, raising awareness of political will and promoting the need for a change in policy so that resources are allocated on the basis of indigenous health. The development of the campaign and the various tactics employed have enabled the issues of indigenous health rights to come to light as a serious matter amongst the general public, political parties, organisations, media etc. The campaign and the information kits readily available are a practical way of promoting the

Optimal mental health has been associated with improved health, social, and professional outcomes (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention "Mental Health Basics”). Thus, mental health care is the process of maintaining this well-being for individuals through various health-related services. Because those with mental health disorders are unlikely to “live productively and fruitfully,” many of these people are likely to be in low-income brackets, which also means they are less likely to be able to afford or have sufficient access to the necessary care and their mental and physical health may further deteriorate, thus signaling a vicious cycle. Unfortunately, because poor mental health is not commonly treated or prevented in primary care, these individuals continue to suffer until they are able to be treated for a specific mental illness. Often mental health care and medical care do not coincide. This is a substantial issue because individuals who are in serious need of mental health services are more likely to have serious physical illnesses that accompany mental illnesses. In addition to driving up prices of care, this type of disorganization also reduces the quality and effectiveness of mental health care and medical care

Mental health services ended up being far from reached by patients with primary psychiatric disorders. Mental health care means not only improving access but also improving clinical quality and ensuring cultural competence. It is the ability to treat and support programs to encounter individuals on personal terms and in methods that are customarily aware.

The availability of professional services to accommodate all aspects of a healthy child is important to establish in a Community School environment participating Community Schools is partnering with CBO’s partners and their health service team provide the necessary services for the school.

Individuals who have many different challenges in their life’s can make it difficult to learn how to budget their money and make life extremely stressful. However, almost everyone can learn how to budget even with their challenges they may face with the day to day life. Learning to budget with different life’s challenges can help a person overcome stress and be more successful. Budgeting can be problematical with different lives challenges. However, if someone is taught how to budget, that can take some of the stress out of budgeting.

Mental healthcare needs to be funded in conjunction with physical healthcare (1) (8) (9) so that liaison psychiatry services to address mental health needs are included in specifications for emergency, unscheduled and elective physical healthcare. This principle should also apply to complex or regional services, such as those that are commissioned through national service commissioning. Funding mechanisms for liaison psychiatry, such as commissioning, need to be applied so that services are cohesive and can provide holistic patient care (10).

The trend in psychiatric care is shifting from that of inpatient hospitalization to a focus of outpatient care within the community. Community mental health services include all those activities in the community connected with mental health other than the institutional or hospitalized setting. The community approach focuses on the total population of defined geographical area rather than individual patient. Emphasis is mainly on preventive services which include provision of a continuous, comprehensive system of services designed to meet all mental health related needs in the community. Mental health care is provided. through education, consultation, brief psychotherapy, crisis

A Vision for Change details a comprehensive model of mental health service provision for Ireland. It describes a framework for building and fostering positive mental health across the entire community and for providing accessible, community based specialist services for people with mental illness (HSE, 2012). It focuses on a person-centred treatment approach, which looks at each element through an integrated care plan for service users, with special emphasis put on involving the service users, their families and carers at every level of treatment. Being involved in mental health services is more than the service user being diagnosed or attending consultation, they must be at the centre of the decision making. This is integral to recovery