Mental Health Nursing - Essay Example

"Mental Health Nursing" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
The term healthcare system is used to describe the kind of interrelated cooperation that exists among different stakeholders in the healthcare sector in the delivery of healthcare to citizens (Kitson, 2002). The most significant impact of the system is that things are not done in isolation by any one stakeholder within the sector. Rather, it is always important to bring together the individual aspects of roles to form a collective and jointed progressive delivery of care. It is for this reason that the need for nurses in advance roles to be aware, well informed, and knowledgeable about what prevails in with other stakeholders in the healthcare sector is considered an important requirement. One of the stakeholders whose works affect the nurse in advanced roles directly is policymakers. Policymakers are those who enact and ensure the enforcement of various rules, regulations, and laws within the healthcare sector.

As a professional in the mental health care sector, there are a number of ways in which the author has been instrumental in influencing policymakers in efforts to change policy and promote health. Policymakers within the jurisdiction of the author recognize the need for shared responsibility and coordination in the delivery of their roles. Because of this, they always involve practitioners such as nurses before policies are enacted. One of the commonest ways in which this is done is through field surveys, where advanced practicing nurses are engaged in data collection procedures. The aim of such data collection procedures has always been to understand existing situations on the ground of practice, and finding the best solutions or interventions through policies in solving them. It is through such data collection procedures that policymakers have been influenced by actively participating and expressing change-oriented opinions. Apart from this, avenues are provided to write and present memos to the offices of the policymakers to consider for change.

As a mental health nurse, one policy at the community level that is appropriate for practice is Collaborative Care for the Management of Depressive Disorders. In the U.S., the National Institute of Mental Health has indicated that about one in four adults and one in five children have a diagnosable mental disorder (Guide to Community Preventive Services, 2014). This is an alarming situation that should be of concern to every well-meaning citizen. What this also means to service provision is that the effective delivery of mental healthcare cannot be left in the hands of only a few people as almost everyone is at risk in one way or the other. Through the policy of Collaborative Care for the Management of Depressive Disorders, therefore, it is expected that this all-important and tedious task of managing mental health situations will not be left in the hands of the mental health nurse only. Rather, the policy will help in identifying other useful stakeholders and binding all these people with different roles that they can play in promoting quality mental health.

A typical example of a stakeholder whose work can help make that of the mental health nurse easier is the family. This is because every person comes from or belongs to a family. Once families will accept the need to support and provide the needed support to patients with mental health conditions, it can be assured that the rate of recovery can be made easier and quicker. To enforce this policy, a high degree of political competence is needed. To do this, a strategy that seeks to motivate family members who show involvement in the management of depressive disorders among other family members is recommended. This could come in the form of an allowance paid for the time that such committed and voluntary family members will spend in collaborating with care. The rationale for this strategy is that most people refuse to collaborative for fear of losing financial value and wealth.