Mental Health Awareness And Improvement Act Of 2015

The study revealed several issues in this department. Voluntary emergency patients have to wait extended periods of time before being transferred to the appropriate department. The majority of those who have to wait are those seeking mental health assistance. Keeping people in the emergency department longer than necessary cause operational costs skyrocket, and worse, keeps the needs of patients from properly being met.

Through this essay it has become evident that’s mental health nurses need to have a full understanding of the mental health act 2007 and the changes it has bought to this area of care. They need to be aware of how necessary it is for the recovery of consumers that they themselves and their family and carers be involved in their mental treatment. Recovery-oriented services need to be assessed by the nurse and the consumer to ensure an individualised and personal recovery journey. Nurses will need to tailer their care to each consumer as each individual has different and experience and supports. Nurses need to remain unbiased in their care delivery and not be influenced by the stigma that surrounds mental illness. They need to work in partnership

The Mental Health Services Act is a monumental proposition that has helped many people for more than a decade. In California alone, close to 1.2 million adults and around 422,000 children live with a serious mental illness (State 2010). Without the proper treatment, suicide is the leading cause of death for a person battling an untreated mental illness (State 2010). With over thirteen billion dollars raised so far, MHSA has been the root of funding for mental health in California (Williams 2015). MHSA is still a work in progress. The act is nowhere near perfect, as a recent audit has shown, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Mental illness is an increasing problem in America. Currently about 26.2% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. A mental illness/disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others and daily functions. Mental illness can affect humans of any age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. However the care that is needed to effectively cure and help the people affected by the illness is not equal for everyone here in American, especially for African Americans.

Problem Statement: The World Health Association defines ‘good’ health as: “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” However, in the United States, access to care and funding for mental health care are grossly neglected and underfunded in comparison to other aspects of health care.

Through environmental and technological innovations, health care in the industrialized world has been transformed over the past two centuries. This transformation also applies to mental health care. With the discovery and acceptance of psychology as a legitimate health science in the past one and a half centuries, mental health has been gradually integrated into the broad health care schema as primary and preventative medicine. However, even with this gradual integration, mental health care in the United States leaves much to be desired. Even after the passage of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), this type of care falls short of

Patients faced with mental illness and who present themselves to Emergency Departments often face long waiting times before being evaluated by a mental health professional. The mental health patient may be discharged before receiving a thorough psychiatric assessment, or may spend hours and even days

A stand-alone emergency department specializes in dealing with psychiatric patients is a proven way to deviate psychiatric boarding in the regular ED. According to a study on the effect of having a dedicated psychiatric emergency service published in Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, “transferring patients from general hospital EDs to a regional psychiatric emergency service reduced the length of boarding times for patients awaiting psychiatric care by over 80% versus comparable state ED averages” (Zeller, Calma, & Stone, 2014). Not only will the emergency departments benefit from this study, but also inpatient psychiatric

The goals of the Improving Access to Emergency Psychiatric Care Act align with the three core principles of the broader Affordable Care Act: “Improving access to and satisfaction with care, improving quality and outcomes of care, and reducing total health care costs” (Katon and Unützer, 2013). In both its direct impact on the nation’s neglected mentally ill population and the precedent that it reinforces with respect to systematic health care reform, the Improving Access to Emergency Psychiatric Care Act is an outstanding law that exemplifies the cooperation of prescriptive legislation and outcome-driven administration in formulating and implementing effective domestic policy.

Motions of the Consent and Capacity Board (the "Board") are governed by section 25.1 of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act (The Act). They apply to hearings held under the Health Care Consent Act, 1996, Long-Term Care Act, 1994, Mental Health Act and Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. Further, any interested party may make a motion before the Board, and the Board has jurisdiction to direct the motion be dealt with as it deems appropriate.

The Mental Health Act 2014 promotes supported decision-making and encourages strong communication between health practitioners, consumers, their families and carers. It supports people with a mental illness to make and participate in treatment decisions and to have their views and preferences considered and respected. It places greater emphasis on recovery & participation, involving patients more in all decisions about assessment, treatment & recovery. It allows patients to make decisions about assessment, treatment & recovery that involve a degree of risk, while involving carers in those decisions.

The healthcare industry has an obligation to protect and advocate for all people with mental health conditions. Over the years they have lacked what they can do for those people and in turn has caused a lot of problems with business who provide treatment and causing some to shut down. Bill (H.R.2646) also known as The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016 will fix a plethora of provisions that will make it easier to access different medical health care advancements in facilities. But before we can fully delve into the, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2016, and its impact on the healthcare business industry, we must first understand what Mental Health is, it’s Crisis and the board population affected. According to WHO (World Health Organization), mental health is "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community". WHO stresses that mental health "is not just the absence of mental disorder". Mental health sums up our emotional, psychological and social well being. Once you experience mental health problems, they can come across and affect you in ways such as your thinking, your behavior and mood. Your ability to handle certain social situations become harder and harder.

Integrative health care approach is used to address the physical and behavioral health of the patient. Unfortunately, in a busy Emergency Department (ED), where providers and nurses are occupied with patients presenting with cardiac and other physiological problems, mental and behavioral health often take a back seat. Many patients with mental health problems seek care in the emergency department primarily due to lack of insurance and reduced access to mental health services. High patient volume and time constraints have limited me from providing adequate mental health care and therapeutic support to my patients.

The World Health organization constructed the Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 which aims to address the global mental health issues. The goal of this action plan is to “promote mental well-being, prevent mental disorders, provide care, enhance recovery, promote human rights and reduce the mortality, morbidity and disability for persons with mental disorders worldwide” (WHO, 2013). It has four objectives include 1strengthening leadership and governance, 2ensure comprehension, integrated and responsive mental health and social care service in community-based settings, 3to put in place techniques to promote and prevent in mental health, 4 strengthening surveillance, evidence and research for mental health (WHO, 2013).

Annually, almost 26 % of adults (over the age of 18) suffer from a mental illness or about 57.7 million people, 45% of those have two or more mental illnesses (Lee & Thyer, 2013).  In 1955, the United States had 558, 239 state psychiatric beds or 340 beds per 100,000 population, but now the U.S. has 35,000 state psychiatric beds or 11 beds per 100,000 population. Nationwide this has created a shortage of psychiatric beds. It is not uncommon to wait for days in medical emergency rooms for a psychiatric bed because of the limited number of psychiatric beds (Torrey, 2016). When patients are not seen within six hours in any emergency room it is considered