Staffing and Administrative Issues in Behavioral Health - Essay Example

'Staffing and Administrative Issues in Behavioral Health' is a worthy example of a paper on the health system. 
Different professionals undergo varied challenges in their day to day activities while proceeding with their normal activities. Besides their usual tasks, they are compelled to look for ways to handle these challenges. One of the major sectors where there are numerous challenges is the healthcare sector. In the same way as the healthcare sector, the behavioral health sector is also facing a number of issues. This is especially with reference to the recruitment and retention of behavioral health professionals. It applies to both the clinical and administrative positions. Owing to the sensitive way with which patients are treated in the behavioral healthcare facilities, fewer people willing to be recruited. Those who are recruited also work in the facilities for shorter periods after which they leave.

Challenges faced in relation to the recruitment and retention of workers in behavior

There are a number of unique challenges that are faced by the behavioral health facilities when recruiting behavioral health professionals. They arise from the challenges that are faced when dealing with patients who are mentally challenged and who may have also fallen ill from time to time. These include the stigma that is presented and associated with mental health professionals. This is especially in the nursing sector where it continues to present a lot of challenges to the recruitment of nurses in this sector despite the increasing prevalence and the healthcare needs of the people living with mental illnesses (Davis, 2005). Besides some of these challenges that are real, there are also those myths associated with the provision of mental healthcare which also presents challenges in relation to the recruitment and retention of nurses. Among the key challenges include the risk of injuries, stigma and the ability to establish therapeutic relationships with the patients and their families (Selden, 2003).

Comparison with normal healthcare provision

In my opinion, behavioral health organizations do not tend to face similar challenges in the recruitment and retention of their management. This is in the sense that the situations that they handle are a little bit more sensitive and tricky than the ones in the normal healthcare setup. Despite the fact that most of the problems that are faced in these facilities are also the same as those which are experienced in the normal healthcare provision centers, it is only that the nature and degree of these problems vary from time to time (San, 2010). For instance, when handling patients who are suffering from mental disorders it is additionally a common occurrence that a number of them may be suffering from normal illnesses as well. For this reason, behavioral health professionals can be said to experience double challenges. They have to tackle their own problems in addition to those that are faced by professionals in the other healthcare sectors (Oss, 2004).

Conclusion

Both the normal and the behavioral healthcare provision sectors that provide services for the mentally ill face various challenges from time to time. However, the latter seems to be more complex as there are the actual and the mythical challenges faced. For this reason, the recruitment and retention of staff are affected greatly. Therefore, there is a need to promote the mental sector as a vibrant specialty and offer the professional in the field an opportunity to obtain specialized competencies.