Challenges and Problems Associated Treatment of Mental Health - Essay Example

Running head: treatment of mental health 14th February Introduction Mental health refers to thestate of being emotionally wellbeing including the way we feel, think and behave. Once one has no mental disorder, it leads to mental health. Mental disorder refers to the psychological condition that is marked mostly by sufficient disorganization of individuals, their minds as well as emotions to the level of creating impairment in the social and normal psychological functioning of individuals. One of the notable aspects of individuals with mental disorders is that they are seen not to function properly in the society. Most of the mental disorders consist of combination of cognitive, affective, perceptual and affective components (Repper and Perkins, 2006). There are various types of mental illnesses. These includes anxiety disorder, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, addiction disorder, personality disorders, posttraumatic disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder among others. With the growing challenges financially, socially and culturally, we all are exposed to mental disorders that may affect our functioning. According to WHO, in low and middle income countries, mental health services are not sufficiently funded an aspect that results into more cases of mental disorders. According to National Institute of Mental Health, mental disorders are common in US and other countries. For example, 57 million American experience a certain type of disorder each year which represent 26% of US adults. However, the case of serious mental illness is only suffered by 6% which is equivalent of 1 in 17 people. Another key point to note is that in Canada, UK and US among other developed countries, mental disorders form the major cause of disability among individuals aged between 15 and 17 years. Thus, there is need to establish ways of addressing mental disorders. This paper aims at discussing various issues that relate to treatment of mental health. Challenges and problems associated treatment of mental health One of the major challenges that are faced in the management of mental health is poor financing for community mental health centers. In most areas, community mental health centers are the key providers of specialty mental health, implying that they are important determinant of mental health access for members of the surrounding community. However, the health centers operate under financial constraints thus making them not to effectively offer their crucial services. Major sources of finance for rural and urban health centers are federal block, state general revenues and Medicaid. As compared to their urban counterparts, rural health centers mostly rely on Medicaid program for payment. Based on low rates of reimbursement by Medicaid, rural health centers earn less on average per unit thus making the local community not to get quality mental health services. The second challenge is workforce limitations. Mostly rural areas experience unmet needs due to lack of adequate mental health professionals. For example in 2013, 75% of US residents who experienced mental health problems were rural communities. Rural communities that lack adequate mental health professionals are more likely to experience high rate of mental health as this trend continues (Schacter et al, 2010). Similarly, communities that have mental health providers may still suffer since the experience of the workforce may not be in line with the needs of the communities. Foe example long term care recipients who are in dire need of mental health treatment may notice that their care clinicians lack geriatric or psychiatric training. Another notable challenge that mental health treatment face is geographic and physical barrier that includes long travel times and long distance. Lack of transportation services especially in rural communities negatively affects the provision of mental treatment notably for low income earners. It is vital to note that there is a limitation of the Medicaid funding for non-emergency patient transportation is mostly limited in rural areas. As a result, provision of mental health for individuals using public means of transportation generates a major challenge for the local communities. Review of the Community Health Literature According to Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, more than 10 million Americans with chronic disabilities need continuous services in order to allow them to perform their duties. The commission point of view on community health is that mental health conditions are common among US long term care population. Additionally, if the mental health comorbidities are not timely addressed by qualified professionals they can become costly and debilitating. On their studies on long term outcomes from the impact of depressed elderly patients, Hunkeler et al (2006) indicates that improved mental health services in rural communities could improve the outcomes and reduce the costs of providing health services. However, lack of adequate resources and health infrastructure in the rural areas as indicated by Kaiser Commission is a major challenge that affects mental health treatment. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 provided strong pressure for health care innovations as well as new funding that created new opportunities for expanding access to proper mental health interventions. Critical analysis of challenges Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured indicates that poor financing for community mental health centers is a major challenge to the provision of adequate health services. Despite being a major source of the government revenue, local communities are faced with mental health treatment. According to Jean and Andrew (2013), the recent trends in the allocation of state general revenues present a big challenge to rural community mental health centers. In 2008, rural community mental health centers depended on the funds from the states, this accounted for 40% of their total budgets. However Jean and Andrew (2013), indicates that in 2009 to 2011, most of the states extensively reduced their allocation to rural community mental health centers resulting to financial crisis thereafter. As a result, most of the health mental centers reduced staff or eliminated their services. This led to another challenge of lack of adequate and trained workforce. As noted earlier, local communities are not only faced with inadequate health workers but also there is a problem of the type of training that they undergo. Carlson (2010) argues that lack of both primary care providers and mental health professionals will possibly make it difficult to establish the kind of complex service and multidisciplinary models that are believed to be optimal for individuals experiencing chronic physical conditions as well comorbid psychiatric. As noted, Medicaid does not cover the transportation services for the patients who attend the rural community mental health centers regardless of the distance. As a result, Hunkeler, Katon et al, 2006 indicates that they undergo suffering that makes their condition to be worse. There is need to come up with a plan to tackle the problem of access barriers since even though some mental health are hired to go to patient homes, mental health providers and independent practitioners are noted to be reluctant to deal with off-site cases. Recommended Solutions To address the issue of lack of adequate finances among other resources in the rural communities, there is need for states government to intervene by initiating an effective act that caters for the health wellbeing of the citizens. It is worth to note that as tax payers, the rural communities cannot be overlooked despite their conditions. There is also need to increase budget allocation for mental health centers to avoid their closure since this would in turn generate more challenges in the treatment of mental conditions. One of the major solutions to tackle the challenges faced by the mental health treatment is strengthening the rural mental health workforce. This involves recruitment of professionals in rural areas. A standard policy should be adopted by all the states whereby mental health professionals are deployed and motivated to work in the underserved areas. For example, the National Health Service Corps emulates a policy that makes the mental health clinicians to receive federal repayment for their education loans if they agree to serve in rural and underserved areas. Another way to deal with the problem of workforce is to grow an indigenous rural mental health workforce. Government health agencies and local universities should come up with a training program for the members of the community that are interested in providing mental health care to their colleagues. Successful graduates from the training should be eligible to offer reimbursable services in the communities. To deal with the problem of physical access barriers, there is need to facilitate face to face contacts between mental health clinicians and care recipients. This may include establishment of insurance benefits and provider reimbursement in order to cover the transportation costs of attending the sites. Another solution to address the issue of accessibility is to initiate tele-mental health. This entails expanding the use of telemedicine which is noted to improve face-to-face clinical contacts; it is cost effective and acceptable to patients. Implementation of Solutions With the increased cases of mental disorders, there is need to states government to give more powers to law makers to pass a mental health care act that will increase the funds in rural areas. By passing the law for example in the next 5 weeks, mental health treatment will be greatly boosted. Annual recruitment of professionals in rural areas will similarly provide an impact of the mental health treatment. This should involve making job advertisements and allowing eligible candidates to apply. The interview should be conducted by mental health expert together government health agencies. The training program should be done on a quarterly basis. This also should involve regular evaluation of the trained members of the community to gauge their competency (Nakul et al, 2006). Establishment of insurance benefits should be a priority that can be done within 6 months through the support of the law makers. In addition, medical professional and innovators should be hired within 1 year to come up with tele-mental health that is sustainable and effective. Justification of Solutions The above solutions will effectively address the mental health challenges. For example, if funds allocated to community mental health centers are increased, the sites will have adequate resources to hire more skilled health workers thus timely addressing patients with mental disorders. Similarly, by regular recruitment of mental health clinicians and giving them flexible benefits they will ultimately work even in rural areas. As the level of technology in the medical centre improves, tele-mental health is a concept that countries should appreciate. Even though it can be costly for low income countries, developed nations should come up to financially assist such countries. Such measures will significantly reduce cases of mental disorders in US and other countries. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is clear that despite the challenges of mental health treatment that includes poor financing for community mental health centers, workforce limitations and geographic and physical barrier there are sustainable solutions. The high number of US residents that suffer mental illnesses will experience an improvement through increment of funds to health centers, recruiting more mental health clinicians, training of members of the public who wish to be mental care providers, establishing flexible benefits for mental health professionals and imbursements among others. There is also need to come up with appropriate time to implement the solution. For example as noted in the paper, within the next 5 weeks, adequate laws that aims at improving the allocation to mental health centers should be put in place. Similarly, recruitment of mental health professional in yearly bases will avoid scarcity of the clinicians in the rural areas. On other hand, the trained members of the community should be regularly evaluated in order to ensure that they provide quality services that met the needs of the patients. The solutions, if undertaken in timely bases are vital in curbing the mental health treatment challenges. References Carlson, N. (2010). Psychology the Science of Behaviour. Toronto: Pearson Education Incorporated. Jean, A and Andrew, F. (2013). Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Mental Health Services in Rural Long. Available from http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/Publications/MRHRC/WP50-Rural-Mental-Health-Services-LTC.pdf Nakul, T et al. (2006). Music therapy for in-patients with schizophrenia: Exploratory randomised controlled trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry 89 (5) Repper, J and Perkins, R. (2006) Social Inclusion and Recovery: A Model for Mental Health Practice. UK: Tindall. Schacter, L., Gilbert, T and Wegner, M. (2010). Psychology. New York: Worth Pub. Read More