State Of California Cutting Back On Spending Towards People With Mental Illnesses

The provision of mental health services in the U.S. is a social justice issue that affects vulnerable populations in a variety of ways, including: limited access to quality mental health programs, especially in rural areas; the stigma associated with seeking mental health help; and discrimination against those with mental health issues. The far-reaching implications on our current system and policies of mental health care mean that it is a pervasive issue in the United States. According to the Scientific American, “Mental health care is one of the biggest

The Mental Health Services Act is designed to accumulate and distribute funds to county mental health programs (upon program plan approval). There are five different areas that the act helps with funding in mental health. The first is Community Services & Support (CSS) which helps fund the pairing of mental health care with primary health care settings. CSS also provides mental health support services to people that aren’t able to receive the services elsewhere (Dchs.ca.gov 2015). CSS has some main objectives including reduction of homelessness, justice and child welfare system

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.

Mental health in America is a stigmatized topic that affects nearly 20% of the population and around 1 in 4 people will be affected by a mental illness at some point in their life (World Health Organization, 2010). However, due to the stigma behind mental health, people often do not seek treatment. As for the homeless population, the rates are much higher, with 1 in 4 homeless individuals living with a severe mental illness (Jasinski, Wesely, Mustaine, & Wright, 2005). These people and this population struggles to receive adequate healthcare, but with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or better known as ObamaCare, there have been positive change made to help these individuals. However, the ACA is not perfect and there are

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.

An interesting finding by Huskamp and Iglehart (2016) is that between the Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there should be a rise in people with mental illness seeking services, however, services are underutilized more than ever (Huskamp & Iglehart, 2016). According to Bendant (2014), in 2013 a total of 47 million people uninsured and 25% of those suffer mental illness (Bendant, 2014). These numbers are staggering for a service that is more inclusive now more than ever. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) site indicates that the MHPA is regulated differently depending on the state (CMS, n. d.). The Department of Labor (DOL) has identified a few problems with the MHPA and addressed these issues to Congress via a 2017 report (DOL, n.

Almost half of the population in the US are affected by mental health conditions every year. A diagnosable mental illness affects about 43 percent of the U.S. population at some point in their lives. 75 percent of youth are left with no or insufficient treatment. If mental illness is recognized early on, it can help citizens avoid large medical bills down the road and could help lessen the amount of homelessness, unemployment, suicides, shootings, bad decision making, etc.

Seeking to improve care and lower costs, Florida became the first state to offer a Medicaid health plan designed exclusively for people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar conditions. The plan offered by Connecticut-based Magellan Complete Care - is part of a state experimentation to co-ordinate physical and mental healthcare for those enrolled in Medicaid. Mental illness is a big driver of Medicaid costs because it is twice as prevalent among beneficiaries of the public insurance program for the poor as it is among the general population. Studies show that enrollees with mental illness, who also have chronic physical conditions, account

The approval of Proposition 63 (also known as the Mental Health Services Act or MHSA) in November 2004 provides the California Department of Mental Health (DMH) to provide increased funding, employees and other resources to support county mental health programs. The Department will also monitor progress toward statewide goals for children, teens/young adults, adults, and families. Prop 63 includes a wide field of prevention, early involvement, service needs, the necessary transportation, technology and training fundamentals that will successfully support the system (Scheffler and Adams).

I feel that even if the proposals become law it’s only the first step to fixing this problem. The article discusses some promises made by Kennedy in 1963 to subsidize mental-health services in every community. Kennedy signed a bill to create as many as 2000 community health centers, there are just 740 today. The insurance companies might feel a little better about supporting mental-health if they were presented with some comparisons of successful treatment between psychiatry and physical medicine. One such comparison given in the article is that 60% of those treated for schizophrenia can be successfully treated, while just 41% of those that have angioplasty can recover fully. There is a huge number of mentally ill that are homeless because they’ve gone untreated. They often turn to illegal drugs to ease there pain and confusion. In my opinion this problem should be addressed quickly. There are confused mentally ill people that have been forgotten about by society that are roaming the streets. These people can un-knowingly commit horrific crimes such as the man discussed earlier that pushed the women to her death in the New York subway. The

Lack of access to mental health care and treatment is one of the top ten reasons that many mental health conditions go untreated. Many private and group health insurance plans only include minimal mental health care coverage or do not incorporate mental health care coverage at all. Over half of adult citizens of the United States of America, who possess a mental illness, do not obtain mental health care treatment. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one out of every five adults in America have endured their own mental health difficulty, and one out of every twenty-five American adults suffer from a severe mental illness, such as major depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. (Top 5 Barriers to Mental Healthcare Access, Social Solutions.com, 2017)

Policies have an important role in regulating and shaping the values in a society. The issues related to mental health are not only considered as personal but also affecting the relationships with significant others. The stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health can be traced to the lack of legislation and protection of rights (Rodriguez del Barrio et al., 2014). The policy makers in mental health have a challenging task to protect the rights of individuals as well as the public (Swigger & Heinmiller, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to analyse the current mental health policies. In Canada, provinces adopt their own Mental Health Acts (MHA) to implement mental health services. As of January 15, 2016, there are 13 mental health acts in Canada (Gray, Hastings, Love, & O’Reilly, 2016). The key elements, despite the differences in laws, are “(1) involuntary admission criteria, (2) the right to refuse treatment, and (3) who has the authority to authorize treatment” (Browne, 2010). The current act in Ontario is Mental Health Act, 1990.

When people are mentally ill, they suffer social stigma, have higher health costs, and are at an increased risk of becoming poor. Every one out of five Americans is diagnosed with a mental illness. That 20 percent of the population can negatively influence the normal stresses of life, working productively and fruitfully, and being able to make a contribution the community. When humankind as a whole cannot recognize that mental illness is a serious issue, there is more harm being done than good. Any kind of mental illness can be caused merely by society, but also can worsen due to humanity not understanding how injustice can make a serious impact. The mental health problems that people face can be limited to society learning about the injustice of these illnesses.

Schizophrenia is often times referred to as one of the most devastating mental illness. This is because of it early onset in a patients live, and also that the symptoms can be destructive not only to the patient but also their family and friends. Schizophrenia is often discussed as a single illness, but schizophrenia can include a wide array of disorders which can present many similar behavioral symptoms. More than likely schizophrenia comprises a whole group of disorders with heterogeneous causes which include those patients whose clinical presentations, responses, treatment and course of their illnesses were varied. It’s not only one of the most devastating mental illness but is also one of the most financially taxing; This is because, The according to a study conducted the overall U.S. 2002 cost of schizophrenia (The Economic Burden of Schizophrenia in the United States in 2002, J Clin Psychiatry. 2005 Sep;66(9):1122-1129) was estimated to be $62.7 billion, with $22.7 billion excess direct health care cost this breaks down to for $7.0 billion outpatient, $5.0 billion drugs, $2.8 billion inpatient, $8.0 billion long-term care (Analysis Group, Inc. 2014).

Public policy refers to “a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities promulgated by governmental entity or its representatives”(Blau & Abramovitz, 2014). One public policy that is gaining attention from United States Senators is the Expand Excellence in Mental Health Act. We can gain a better understanding of this act by taking a look at a recent public policy related to mental healthcare, the values in the Code of Ethics, social welfare programs, stakeholder groups, and Joel Blau’s five elements model. This will give us a better understanding into the social problem and public policy related to access to mental healthcare.