Mental Health Nursing - Essay Example

MENTAL HEALTH NURSING A Paper Presented to the Faculty of of College In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in (Course ) October 11, 2008 Introduction This paper intends to write a letter to a friend nurse who lives in the third world country. I have learned of her intention to work in Australia not for greener pasture but for her desire to learn more about modern trends in health care specially in caring the mentally derailed or mentally disturbed patients. I know of her grandiose passion of helping the mentally-ill patients and yet I know too that she thirst for more knowledge. I am writing her a letter then to share my thoughts, experiences, and ideas, as well as my own feelings of fulfilment in my practice of mental health care if only to convince her more to come to Australia and find more meaning in providing care for the mentally ill patients and to understand the need to be exposed to mental health care practices in advanced countries like Australia. Dear Mary Ann, I must congratulate you for what you have achieved in your profession. Being a head nurse in a mental hospital in a country like yours must be very challenging considering the lack of more modern facilities and technology that could help provide more efficient services to patients. I have learned of your intention of coming to Australia to further your studies in psychiatric nursing and to get better exposures in mental health care so that you will be better equipped in responding to your patients’ needs when you get back to them. Having been exposed in the same field, I have so much to share. Australia has so much to offer as regards to mental health care. But first I would like to present to you important issues that confront the mental health care of Australia. It is important that you understand the present situation and get to realize the urgency for people like you in the call for reforms in the mental health care of Australia. In the studies conducted by the Mental Health Council of Australia in 1992, the following key concerns were found out: (1) unmet basic mental health services; (2) inadequate funding for basic mental health services; (3) restricted access to mental health services; and (4) on going human rights abuses and neglect. In 1993, the Burdekin Report also documented on human rights abuses within the institutions so that the Australian government was prompted to implement a five-year program to: (1) facilitate genuine participation for consumers and carers; (2) develop high-quality, community-based mental health care; and (3) outline a broader approach to population-based health promotion and disease prevention. You must understand then that many people in Australia especially those with mental disorders and their families, are getting frustrated, however, I am happy to tell you that many are still very willing to support the programs. I would like to quote the exact words of the Mental Health Care of Australia to make my point more vivid: “Their goodwill, patience and support for the protracted nature of genuine health care reform have been dissipated. They are willing to back another 5 years of government national planning - but only if it is supported by genuine national leadership and commitment (Mental Health Care of Australia). It is important therefore to have nurses and medical practitioners that are committed to the improvement in the mental health care. It is important to have a nurse like you who would take the challenges to work hard for the reforms needed for the mental health care not only for Australia but for your own country. I am most certain Australia’s case is not isolated. The very fact that you are thirsting for more knowledge and exposure tells us that you too are confronted with the same problems and issues. Indeed we need to educate the society and battle the stigma associated with mental disorders that makes many fearful of medical treatments. I should also want to share with you the 10-point plan of the South Australian government in line with the need to educate the people then in order to make the necessary improvements of the condition of mental health care services: (1) Stop the over reliance on inpatient services. This means that there is the need to increase resources such as hostel type of accommodation, lifestyle support accommodation, 24 hour access emergency accommodation; (2) Stop people having to wait for services so that they become so ill that they need intensive/acute inpatient care; (3)  Stop people from becoming disabled as a consequence of their mental illness; (4) Stop or reduce the number of re-admissions and reduce the number of acute episodes; (5) Stop the use of buildings and facilities for in-patient care that are no longer appropriate; (6) Stop the growth in the number of adult acute cases of mental illness; (7) Stop the inadequate support for older people with mental illness; (8) Stop the decline in the mental health workforce; (9) Stop or reduce community and staff concerns about safety and reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness; and (10) Stop dealing with archaic systems (South Australian.org, 2008). There are so many challenges indeed and yet I know that there is so much that we can do. I must tell you too that the last few years opened many opportunities for Mental Health Care in Australia. The Australian government provided $120 million funding that extended up to this year for the betterment of mental health care. It launched the 4 year program for the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Program which aims to support general practitioners in improving the quality of care through health education and training. The Government of Australia (2008) for instance has recorded significant progress in its reforms. The following are some of the achievements on the service development as published in the government’s website. I would like to enumerate some of them if only to let you know that there are a lot of reasons that we can hold on in our commitment to improve mental health care: (1) New nation leading mental health triage call centre operational, providing faster and more efficient response to mental health related emergency calls 24 hours a day, 7 day a week; (2) Significant reforms to the Mental Health Act due before Parliament in just over a month; (3) Allocated $9M boost over 3 years to recruit 30 new mental health professionals to work alongside GPs across SA; (4) First year of the $36.8m over 4 years rolled out to non-government organisations for delivery of non-clinical community based support services; (5) Allocated $10M to expand Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services with recruitment largely done for the Healthy Young Minds workers. More than 600 people have a received a service under this program to date; (6) Allocated $1.6m over four years for early intervention for young people experiencing mental illness for the first time including the establishment of an outreach service; (7) Increased consultation with consumers and carers; and (8) Implementing a workforce development plan to enhance delivery of services. Mary Ann, I could not wait for the time when you can come to Australia. Hopefully you can come soon and together we will dedicate more of ourselves for the fulfilment of our profession. We are nurses and despite the many odds that we face I know we will be most happy in the end because we did our very best to make many mentally impaired patients lives more worthwhile and meaningful. Very respectfully yours, References: Australian Medical Association. (2008). “Australia’s mental health shambles.” Medical News Today. Retrieved October 10, 2008 from http://www.medicalnewstoday .com/articles/17918.php General Practice Queensland. “Better outcomes in mental health care programs.” Retrieved, October 10, 2008 from http://www.gpqld.com.au/page/Programs/Mental_ Health/Better_Outcomes_in_Mental_Health_Care_Program_BOiMHC/ Mental Health Council of Australia. “Key issues about mental health in Australia..” Retrieved, October 10, 2008 from http://www.mhca.org.au/AboutMentalHealth/factsheets/ KeyIssues.html Mental Health Council of Australia. “Mental health reform.” Retrieved, October 10, 2008 from http://www.mhca.org.au/AboutMentalHealth/factsheets/MentalHealthReform.html Government of South Australia. (2008). “Rebuilding and restructuring mental health.” Retrieved from http://www.ministers.sa.gov.au/news.php?id=2848 South Australian.org. “10 point plan for reform of mental health services in South Australia: Directions for better mental health include…” Retrieved from http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:O9P1pwYtp6IJ:www.unitingcarewesley-sa.org.au/ LinkClick.aspx%3Flink%3D10pointplan.doc%26mid%3D347+australia%3B+mental+health+care+facilities&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=12 Read More