Strategic Effect Of The Community's Work Force And Improve The Negative Perception Of People Suffering From Mental Illness

When a person with mental illness feels stigmatized among the community they seek health care professionals who can help them feel better. Consumers expect to have understanding and respect in the health sector. Unfortunately, some consumers experience the opposite way and they also felt the stigma with health care providers (SANE Australia 2013).

Mental Health coverage prior to the Affordable Care Act was far to none. With about nearly one-third of currently covered individuals having no coverage for substance abuse disorder services and approximately 20% having no coverage for mental health services. Services such as outpatient therapy visits, impatient crisis intervention and stabilization were among many that were not offered. Since the Affordable Health Care Act has been passed more individuals are able to afford health insurance that were once uninsured. It has helped many individuals in being able to obtain medical services that were once inaccessible.

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.

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.

Policy analysis of mental health care under the ACA as well as description of how mental health care/service are organized under the ACA from federal to local levels.

Cheryl has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Alcohol Use Disorder. When asked about her concerns for post discharge she states that she has been heavily reliant on her parents and their health benefits for her treatment and that she is nervous that she may not have coverage to continue therapy. She reports that she felt safe knowing that “Obamacare” would be in place to help her afford the treatment she needs to stay mentally healthy and sober. She states that she is concerned about the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act because she will need help paying for her mental health expenses. The Affordable Care Act made a giant leap in extending the work of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. These two acts work together to ensure that treatment for mental illness is accessible to many Americans that need treatment. Throughout this paper I

What is left is that we have many citizens who are mentally ill and are not receiving treatment. However the patients who are able to receive treatment are only able to have some treatment covered. Health insurers are responsible for covering the immensely large cost of substantial treatment, a mixture of medication and therapy; since therapy is highly priced, less reliable, and time consuming; patients typically do not receive treatment for therapy. Health insurers would much rather cover medication because it is cheaper, it heals patients faster, and it is more reliable than therapy. However, medication is not made to heal, but to only coax symptoms of a mental illness (Sandberg).

The original purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to address the rising amount of healthcare cost in the United States, and substantially increase the amount of Americans insured with access to affordable healthcare. The ACA allows for the expansion of Medicaid; the government health insurance program, which is designed to increase enrollees for low income families in Medicaid. With this new legislation people who are under the age of 65 who are at or below 133 percent of the poverty line will have access to Medicaid. Anyone who earns below 400 percent of the poverty line will qualify for subsidies for health insurance. (Cockburn, 7) Americans who earn above this level must either buy insurance, or use their employer’s coverage. This is a huge implication because the estimated of new enrollees in 2014 estimated by the Congressional Budget Office is between 16 and 17 million. The federal government has agreed to finance this expansion of Medicaid for the first three years of implementation, for states that agree to the program. After these three years the states will have to start to pay a small portion of Medicaid. Many people with substance abuse problems, and mental disorders without insurance, are low income earning childless adults. (Bainbridge, 5)Under the ACA these Americans now have access to behavioral health treatment, in the 26

I read a news article on Medscape which talks about increasing access to mental health care. The rule require provisions of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to apply to the majority of Medicaid plans and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (Brooks, 2015). The act ensures that mental health and substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than medical and surgical services (Brooks, 2015). I strongly believe that individuals deserve access to quality mental health services and substance use disorder services. In addition, improving quality and access to care will impacts the health of our nation. The proposed rule ensures that all beneficiaries who receive services through a managed care plan or

In today’s society there is a greater awareness of mental illnesses. With this greater awareness one might assume that there would be a substantial increase in government involvement or funding in the area of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately this isn’t the case in the U.S. today. There are hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness that go untreated. These potential patients go untreated for many reasons. These reasons are discussed in the Time article “Mental Health Reform: What Would it Really Take.

Before 1996, health insurance companies were able to set their own arbitrary restrictions on how much mental health coverage an insured individual receives. Often coverage for mental healthcare and substance abuse treatment such as therapy sessions and hospital visits was severely restricted. As a result, many people did not seek treatment for their mental health or substance abuse issues, even if they were in desperate need of professional help (Foundations Recovery Network, 2016).

Medicaid care plans struggle to provide mental health services and with the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act many individuals will gain access to healthcare and also to behavioral health coverage. Though the Affordable Care Act outlined changes to make access to mental health service easy, it is still a struggle to make this happen. It is upto the plan, states and other stake holders to ensure there is access to

Response: In today's society, it is apparent that we are facing a mental health crisis. The lack of mental health care has had disastrous effects on this Nation. To address the issue, our society must first concern ourselves with how ordinary people pay for mental health care. The way people pay for mental health services today is not sufficient. Most states have laws in place making it a requirement for insurance companies to provide mental health care. However, because health care providers create limits on how many mental health professionals are on their panel, and thanks to the inordinate amount of people seeking care, health providers purposefully make it difficult to acquire mental health care in order to save money. This intern means that people seeking mental health care often do so at their own monetary expense.

Patients in mental health are being neglected from the society because of misconception through out the world. Prior to the first day at concern, the fear of meeting these people was the biggest worries, and had a bias that people with mental illness are disabled. However this filed- work experiences provided that with medication and effective occupational therapy as they needed, patients in this population can be fully functional as patients in other populations. This opportunity changed my perception completely and see big demand in OT services in this