Professional Shortage

In my experience, small towns often lack the mental health competencies and capabilities necessary to meet the challenges that face their citizens both individually and collectively. Having volunteered more than 300 hours in small communities, numerous shortfalls and gaps as it related to treatment and psychoeducation were discovered. As a result of these findings, I would like to devote time and research to such areas in order to establish and implement community based programs that will allow for mentally healthy

There are many governmental agencies within the healthcare system. One of most interesting and heart-wrenching agencies is a local governmental agency called Terrell State Mental Hospital. This agency is well known in the state of Texas for its carefree healthcare. They have a longstanding relationship with the families of its patients and are a major contributor to the city of Terrell’s financial windfall. They produce over ten million a year for the city of Terrell, which allows this city to take care of its mental inpatients and make sure they have the best treatment possible.

Pocahontas Memorial will focus on recruiting younger physicians no more than five years out of their training. Due to the aging physician community, younger providers are needed when the current providers retire (Cohn & Harlow, 2009). If the recruitment team focuses on the younger, newly graduated physicians, the physicians they recruit are more likely to stay with the organization longer. Younger physicians also have a different work-life balance approach (Cohn & Harlow, 2009). This is due to the more family oriented view, which, living in a rural community, it is easier to have that balance. Rural areas are generally less stressful as they do not have traditional “big city” issues such as traffic, crowding issues, and the need to rush everywhere.

The first obstacle that must be overcome when Appalachians want to get help for mental health issues is the lack of access to mental health professionals. While there are mental health treatment options available, they are mainly located in the more urban areas of the region (Susan Emily Keefe, Appalachia’s Children). All too often, people are unaware of the services available to them for the treatment of mental health disorders. Even if they do possess knowledge of what is available, it may not be feasible to get to these services. Many of the residents may not have insurance or the financial capabilities necessary to pay for treatment. Because the

Similar to my home state of Louisiana, Tennessee has also struggled with a chronic shortage of rural primary care physicians. While this statistic does depict a true challenge for our two states, over the years Meharry Medical College has done an exceptional job in inspiring medical students to one-day practice in a rural setting and bring about better health care to underserved individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity. This aspect

The mental health professional I interviewed was Carol McClelland of Freedom House Recovery Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Carol has worked with Freedom House for a year as the directory of outpatient services and is licensed as a LPC, LPCS, LCAS, CCS, and MA. Carol’s job requires her to be responsible for the direct oversight of all clinical operations and clinical integrity for outpatient services at Freedom House. The hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, along with a crisis and detox center that is available for contact 24/7. Carol has plenty of experience in the mental health field, such as working as a dual diagnosis/substance abuse outpatient therapist, working with the severely mentally ill, working as a criminal justice outpatient therapist, and also working in a methadone clinic. She chose this career after her experiences in working with mental health, and her extensive education in psychology and counseling. Carol stated that outpatient services was the most interesting out of her job experiences, so when she was offered the job at Freedom House, she accepted.

Healthy communities depend on the promotion of collaboration between health care providers, equitable utilization of health care resources and access to care for disease prevention. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has increased access to insurance, but has not necessarily contributed to increased access to care (Lane et al., 2012). Limited access to health care and insurance, along with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual identity, and age contribute to health care disparities in the United States ("Disparities," 2014). The Appalachian Region has many factors that increase the risk of health disparities among this population, including poverty, unemployment, limited access to care,

(NIH, 2002-2006) Health disparities are defined as “differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States”. Health care access is the ability of a person to receive health care services as a function of access to medical personnel, supplies and the ability to pay for those services. The Appalachian region consists of thirteen states and 420 counties, in which the entire state of West Virginia is in Appalachia, along with the mountainous portions of

Appalachian Poverty Poverty is a global problem, and it has existed from the beginning of civilization. Hunger, homelessness, and lack of health care are major aspects of this world-wide dilemma. Many countries are in complete poverty and a majority are third-world countries. Within the United States of America, a land of plenty, there are also pockets of extreme poverty. Governments around the world are trying to solve this huge problem.

Rural Americans face an exclusive combination of issues that create disparities in health care that are not found in urban areas. Many complications met by healthcare providers and patients in rural arears are massively different than those located in urban areas. Financial factors, cultural and social variances, educational deficiencies, lack of acknowledgement by delegates and the absolute isolation of living in remote rural areas all combined to hinder rural Americans in their struggle to lead a normal, healthy life. Rural hospitals located in rural areas faces many disadvantages, such as; minimum resources, shortcoming or unprepared professionals, and financial disparities. Although many of these challenges could be solved

The following is a direct drive-by observation of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Below areas of the community were observed to identify public health concerns among the community. Travels along the town’s main areas were used to establish concerns and brief visits to shelters and the Pottstown local police department as well. Short observations were performed on foot to create a better look at environmental factors. It was recognized that one of the largest public health concerns for the area was mental illness. Therefore, research was performed to gather clinical and statistical evidence regarding population, economic status and other concerns mentioned in below the document. It can be concluded that the Pottstown area is lacking adequate mental

There are two principal conditions leading to physician shortages in rural communities according to Wright and colleagues. They are “demand-deficient”, meaning they have insufficient populations and resources to support a physician practice, they are “ambiance-challenged,” meaning they are isolated, lack quality services and amenities, and/or are in geographically unattractive settings, or a combination of the two sets of conditions. Inner-city physician shortages are a more recently recognized issue. They are affected by the same conditions, though the specifics are different (Wright, Andrilla, and Hart 2001).

While there is a nursing shortage through many sectors of healthcare there seems to be an especially hard hit shortage in specialty areas. There are a wide range of specialities available in Illinois but there are going to be some shortages of specific specialites in the near future. These specialties are ICU, neonatal, dialysis, OR, pysch, and ER nursing (idfpr & sanderstorm?). There are a few contributing factors to shortages in these areas; these factors are aging workforce with many nurses in theses specialties getting ready to retire, less school clinical experience in these specialties, and expansion of these services (gysto). It is common that younger nurses are attracted to these locations because of increased

One of the main issues with practicing in a rural setting involves client confidentiality and how to maintain it in a rural setting. The odds of having a social worker completing counseling sessions with someone that they know previously are very high when you live and work in a small town. The client could be your next door neighbor or someone you serve with on the local school board. Confidentiality has an exceedingly high chance of being broken. In a small town, the locals will likely know who is currently going to the social worker’s office just by looking at who’s cars are currently in the parking lot. A local social worker might also have no choice but to deal with inquisitive neighbors asking him why their friend is in need of professional help and other personal questions. This type of intrusion generates problems for the client to be able to

These absences of stressors can have a great effect on the overall quality of life and as one researcher notes, " People who are living in rural and low density populated areas are less likely to have mental health problems than those living in urban areas and may also less likely to be exposed to depression cases or mental illness once they have recovered from these in more densely populated areas (Combs, 2006).