The discussion on issues of privacy in the mental hospital in patient setting - Essay Example

80 percent of nurses said they left work discontented as they were unable to take care of patients with the dignity they ought to have. Mix gender wards have been mentioned as one of the explanations preventing care givers to offer dignified treatment. These problems consequently; call for improvements do away with mixed gender wards in mental hospitals (Claire and Ryder 56). Qualitative statistics from aged female users of in-patients services reported that women have a explicit obscurity in sharing the environment with males.

They further highlighted a number of issues that had encountered such as being exposed to unwarranted levels of violence from men, which made them apprehensive for their wellbeing across inpatient and neighborhood outpatient settings. The report further says that the women felt dehumanized as they were forced to share living and curative space with men, making them uncomfortable and despondent about the lack of privacy. Other women held that they were exposed to situations of sexual intimidation, assault and harassment (NHS 24).

Upon reporting, they were not believed, which made them feel powerless and unheard by the hospital system. Finally, women were rewired to take part in mixed gender groups where they could not freely talk about their intimate problems in the presence of men. Further, elderly women are sensitive to mixing with members of the opposite sex. In the implementation of single gender wards, major challenges in terms of funding and special cases of emergency persist. Having single gender walls requires a vast amount of resources such as new buildings, beds, and extra staff both qualified and support staffs, all which require money.

The government and the national health services are responsible for ensuring that such improvements are attained. However, single gender wards initiative can take a back seat with inadequate financing. Money needs to be invested for extra beds and accommodation as well, in order to cater for temporary issues arising such as women who give birth in hospitals. It was reported that some women in United Kingdom gave birth in a waiting room. More than 15.3m British pounds are needed to eliminate mixed system of accommodation in hospitals (Hospital Management, para 11).

It is evident that implementation of single gender wards does not come easy because there are other heath needs that the heath fund requires to fulfill. Another challenge is that some policy makers do not view single sex accommodation as a priority. The UK government strictly wants the national health services to make efficient savings on its budgetary allocation. This then leaves the question as to whether the United Kingdom heath division is wasting resources on single sex accommodation (Hospital Management, para 13).

Emergencies also pose a predicament in single gender wards implementation. In cases where patients require urgent intervention and expert healthcare, the need for admission takes precedence rather than segregation. Hence, patients will be housed with members of the opposite gender. Other challenges in implementing single gender wards are that flexibility needed to maximize bed occupancy will be eliminated. It might be challenging to have two separate wards if bed numbers are small, given a definite geographical distribution.

From a social point of view, it may also be held that single gender rule goes against normalization since there will be no interaction with members of t