Readmission Reduction Strategies in Behavioral Health - Term Paper Example

Readmission Reduction Strategies in Behavioral Health This paper focuses on the key issues associated with readmission reduction strategies in behavioral health by reflecting on three major issues; the important metrics, the management of workers in the area and a description of implementation strategies for innovative approaches to readmission reduction. According to the book written by Simon Wharne, Caroline Williams, Rob MacPherson and Mike Film,”The Assertive Outreach in Mental Healthcare: Current Perspectives” The individuals that receive services that are outreach often have very little knowledge concerning their treatment (Alle-corliss, 2009). The aim of the psycho-education is to improve the knowledge and understanding of illness, medication and treatment options that includes the copying strategies. Psycho education usually involves the family career s and can as well be significant to the family in terms of intervention. There has always been a worry that the side effects of medications and mental illness may make the mental health person being serviced to destabilize thus leading to the reduction of concordance. Moreover, when the psycho-education is reviewed systematically versus the level of providing knowledge in schizophrenia, Merinder and Pekkala came to a conclusion that the psycho-education had a close association with significant reduction in the readmission rates and the risk of lapse rate. In the context of compliance therapy, medication compliance is usually thought to be a major problem in the psychiatric conditions though it features in almost all the medical treatments. In practice, the electric approaches that incorporate the compliance therapy elements alongside recovery focused work that is strength based are most likely to be useful over a long period of time. In order to support this point, Dolder who was a researcher found out that a combination of behavioral, educational and effective strategies were more significant in improving concordance and helping reduce the hospital readmission as well as the relapse. Nigel Eastman and Andrew M Cohen through their book “Assessing Forensic Mental Health Need: Policy, Theory and Research”, they have illustrated that it is possible to reduce MDOs incidences by providing better training to the general psychiatrists so as to enable the prediction of offending behavior be possible or to facilitate the communications between different agencies (Alle-corliss, 2009). However, such interventions are believed to have very limited effects since the effects are also difficult to measure. The attempts made in the measurement of services upon certain objectives such as the reduction in rates of admission. Moreover, the aspect of re-entering the criminal justice system is most likely to be problematic in equality such as the suicide reduction. The directly measured desired outcome or the objective policy ought to be superior to all the proxy or indirect measures. Therefore, in case a significant objective of the MDO care has led to the improvement of the MDOs mental health or has reduced offending, then a direct measurement of the given objective should be strived for. (Alle-corliss, 2009) . Even though it is not possible to know the exactly the health intervention type, it is still possible to know its need from several emerging perspective With reference from the book of “Treatment : Mental Illness by the American Psychiatric Association” under the Kaiser (kff.org), It states that a comparison of psychiatric hospitalization pattern for patients who had severe mental illness and the substance use to the patients with mental illness only. By Leon and associates (Berkman, 2006). The comparison was done in a managed care environment whereby most of the patients were female. The acuteness of illness, the condition at discharge and the patients` response towards treatment produced a similar result according to the researchers. However, the rate of readmission and the length of stay differed the two groups. Those patients who had substance use disorder were also found to have higher rate of readmission. As a result, it is observed that the spinning of the revolving door continues even within managed care context. However, certain interventions may decrease the costs of these psychiatric services and the aspect of identifying such interventions is rendered as a significant objective for the research to be done in future (Neinstein, 2008). Researchers Riggely and Jerrell carried out an examination of three intervention strategies on their cost effectiveness to augment traditional mental health services that included: the case management, traditional recovery program and training skills that were cognitive-behavioral. The results showed that the individuals who were in the group of behavioral training skills recorded a better achievement in social adjustment and in role functioning; they also had a greater reduction in the substance abuse. Moreover, the case management group did better than the traditional recovery program in certain areas with an exception of the substance use symptom. However, from a cost perspective, the patients from all the three groups had a decrease in terms of the days in which they were hospitalized. Their number of times in which they used to visit the emergency room also decreased as their way of using the outpatient mental health practices increased. This suggested that all the intervention strategies impacted positively on the outcome. Bothe the case management group and the group of cognitive-behavioral skills recorded a reduction in the supportive services costs as compared to the traditional recovery program group. However, a lower cost for the acute was realized by the cognitive-behavioral group that was achieved than the other two groups. As a result of the consideration of the clinical outcome effectiveness and the cost picture of the components of cognitive-behavioral skills, it therefore appears promising in the treatment of co-occurring substance use disorder and severe mental illness (Seligman, 2012). The book of “Predictors of Readmission in Hospitalized Anorexia Nervosa Patients”, by Elizabeth Blocher McCabe states that even though the managed care practices results are generally recognized in some of the health care spending reduction, these practices raise very serious concerns from the patients, policy makers and providers with regard to the access of quality care received(Haycock, 2009). Some of the managed care practices that includes; gatekeepers, utilization management, capitation, risks and incentives that are aiming to achieve the cost savings may not obtain their goal. However, the managed care effect of evaluations on service delivery to persons with very serious mental illness in public sector has been so negative. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has over a long time been an active observer of the managed care effect on the health services. According to the Managed Care Report Card that was issued in the year 1997, it indicated that the failure of industry mainly applies on the basic elements of care that individual with serious brain disorders need to survive on. In addition, the manage care practice of management utilization has been closely associated with an increased likelihood of the psychiatric readmission and as a result, it has led to an upgrade of quality care concerns. In conclusion, the paper has reflected on various issues to do with the readmission reduction strategies; references from various books have also been used in the whole discussion so as to support the main topic under discussion. Some of the issues that have been reflected upon in the paper are; the aspect of psycho education that involves around different family careers, the aspect of patients and the reduction of their costs of treatments have also been illustrated through the paper. References Haycock, D. A., & Shaya, E. K. (2009). The everything health guide to schizophrenia: Information and advice to help you cope with the condition and lead a better life. Avon, Mass: Adams Media. Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. W. (2012). Selecting effective treatments: A comprehensive, systematic guide to treating mental disorders. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Neinstein, L. S., & Neinstein, L. S. (2008). Adolescent health care: A practical guide. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Berkman, B., & D'Ambruoso, S. (2006). Handbook of social work in health and aging. New York: Oxford University Press. Alle-corliss, Lupe, & Alle-corliss, Randall. (2009). Group Work: A Practical Guide to Developing Groups in Agency Settings: Epub Edition. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Read More