Essay Example on Mental Health Care: Competing Needs & Resources

Introduction

Competing needs often arise in an event where the organization employees aim to attain their set goals and targets while the leaders of the organization are after the goals of the organization. As a result, competing needs can dramatically affect the provision of mental health care today (Paris & Hoge, 2010). The two notable competing needs within the mental health care stressor include adequate well trained mental health workers and the availability of resources. For ages, the availability of elaborately enough trained health care workers, such as qualified psychiatrists, has remained an evitable competing need in the field of mental health care provision (Paris & Hoge, 2010).

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The lack of qualified mental health workers translates to poor mental health care to patients within a health facility. In most cases, the low ration of mental health specialists in no small number of mental health patients often results to work overload of the existing relatively small mental health workforce within the medical facility. Consequently, the prevention of critical errors while attending to the mental health patients is barely avoidable as the experts en up committing grievous medication errors due to perceived tiredness and overworking (Paris & Hoge, 2010). This leads to the general poor care of the patients, which negatively impacts the reputation of the organization. Tainting the organization's reputation may lead to other undesirable losses, such as loss in revenue due to the low turnout of clients as a result of the delivery of poor care.

Nonetheless, resources are a crucial competing need that can either put the organization at an excellent competitive advantage or render it completely vulnerable altogether. Like in any other organization in a business set up, availability of adequate controllable resources is a critical factor for success in a health facility set up. In several instances, a health facility has to tap vast resources to remain highly successful in the delivery of satisfactory mental health care to patients (Sofka et al., 2018). The organization must comprehend that the mental health care field is relatively complex and requires a range of resources that cover both technological resources and financial resources. While the technical resources are vital in ensuring that the organization is updated, particularly in modern means of delivering care to patients, the financial resources are essential in ensuring the organization is consistently able to adapt to the rapidly evolving technology (Sofka et al., 2018). The resources complement each other, and lack of one drastically influences the other resulting in dire consequences within the organization.

Relevant Policy Influencing Mental Health Care in Our Organization

Mental health care policies are created to define an organization's future vision, particularly in delivering mental health care. Thus, the policies are influential in establishing proper benchmarks applied in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental health diseases (Robiner et al., 2020). The practices are also highly significant in setting standards for mental health promotion within society.

Our organization's telepsychiatry policy has tremendously influenced the level of mental health care delivery in our facility. The policy mainly involves the use of telemedicine in the psychiatry field while attending to patients with mental health problems (Yellowlees & Shore, 2018). The policy has contributed significantly to the shortage of psychiatrists; in turn, the quality of mental health care within the organization has been widely affected because there is minimal physical attendance to the patients.

Furthermore, the telepsychiatry policy has impacted the mental healthcare delivery within the organization by limiting the accessible services in psychiatry. Nonetheless, the policy has led to little, or complete lack of access to the inpatient beds designated for the patients suffering from mental health problems since the majority of the workload is handled via the invocation of technology. In an unpredicted move by our organization, the application of the telepsychiatry policy by our facility has translated to our outpatient appointments wait time being significantly prolonged (Robiner et al., 2020). This is primarily because the arrangements are systematically made through the intervention of technology. As such, the delays are inevitable since the appointments have to follow a strict program regime. Ultimately, the quality of mental health care delivery in our organization is adversely affected due to a considerable slow attendance to the patients suffering from mental health problems.

However, the telepsychiatry policy in our organization has dramatically enhanced and redefined the mental health care concept. The policy has played a crucial role in reducing the levels of stigma associated with mental disorders. In notable instances, the policy is efficient in reaching patients located in rural areas (Yellowlees & Shore, 2018). As such, the regulatory barriers are adequately addressed as quality mental health care is made available to individuals who are in difficult situations of acquiring the services. Nevertheless, the policy has dramatically complemented the efforts of mental health workers within the organization.

Critique The Policy for Ethical Consideration, And Explain the Policy’s

Strengths and Challenges in Ethics Promotion

While the application of telepsychiatry policy in our organization has played a vital role in enhancing and redefining the concept of mental health care delivery to patients within the health care facility, the policy has considerably failed in addressing several safe environment issues within the organization (Kverno, 2016). For instance, the policy does not advocate for the idea of provision of inpatient beds and increased access to physical psychiatrist services. Consequently, the general safety of both the patients and other workers within the organization's environment is significantly compromised (Yellowlees & Shore, 2018). Individuals with mental health problems are often violent and may sometimes behave in a manner that poses bodily harm to themselves and the people around them. Hence, to minimize such scenarios' occurrences, physical access to a psychiatrist should be encouraged, and the patients' environment was made safe.

Furthermore, the policy has dramatically failed in championing a platform where a primary care physician can comfortably refer to behavioral health patients. This is because the telepsychiatry policy significantly suppresses the existence of behavioral health workers. Behavioral health workers are a critical component of a proper and effective mental health care system; they play an essential role in observing and monitoring the constant psychological, emotional, and physical changes that occur in a patient with mental health problems (Yellowlees & Shore, 2018). Documenting such changes is crucial in tracking the progress of the patient and determining if the form of treatment he or she is currently undergoing is sufficient or that some adjustments are necessary.

The challenges witnessed by the policy in ethical promotions are mainly linked to the fact that the policy is relatively new to both the patients and even the mental health care staff. As such, the implementation of the policy by our organization has witnessed various challenges. For instance, the telepsychiatry program requires the use of PMHNP and one psychiatrist responsible for controlling the PMHNP program. However, the real ethical problem arises when the psychiatrist responsible for the PMHNP prescription experiences burnouts due to the increasing responsibilities of having to review numerous orders (Robiner et al., 2020. As a result, the psychiatrist's integrity is put under ethical balance since it might be significantly compromised in an attempt to perform a quick review of the orders (Paris & Hoge, 2010).

However, the policy’s advocation for one psychiatrist to oversee the entire PMHNP prescriptions is useful in the promotion of ethics. The practices significantly give more autonomy to the PMHNP and reduce the psychiatrist's burnout. Nonetheless, the policy is perfect in addressing the ethical considerations associated with balancing the impacts of competing needs, such as resources and workforce (Yellowlees & Shore, 2018). This is because the policy carefully strikes a balance between the necessary upgrade in technology and the right composition of the efficient workforce to oversee the success of the newly adopted technology.

Recommend One or More Policy Changes Designed To Balance Competing Needs of Resources, Workers, and Patients While Addressing Ethical Shortcomings

I would recommend a change in the telepsychiatric policy that ensures that mental health care within the organization is adequately integrated with other primary care services, thus closing most of the existing lapses within the mental health care department (Robiner et al., 2020). Implementing an overlapping, three-phase system through educating primary care nurse practitioners to attain the status of capable PMHNP would create a significant change within the organization, striking a balance between the competing needs and ethical considerations (Kverno, 2016).

The first phase would include training of the primary care nurse practitioners to match the qualifications of a certified PMHNP. The second phase focuses on creating key collaborations, especially with the state and local organizations, to aid in the PMHNP training programs. The last stage, which is the most critical, entails integrating mental health services via the intervention of nurse leaders who ensure that interdisciplinary affiliations are observed, and optimally followed (Robiner et al., 2020). Moreover, the policy change would be more effective if the PCNP are allowed to train using the telemedicine program. Consequently, the PCNP can efficiently function as PMHNP, thus addressing ethical shortcomings within the organization while at the same time advocating for positive changes in the telepsychiatry policy already in use by or organization (Kverno, 2016).

References

Kverno, K. (2016). Promoting access through integrated mental health care education. The Open Nursing Journal. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895028

Paris, M., & Hoge, M. A. (2010). Burnout in the mental health workforce: A review. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 37(4), 519-528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-009-9202-2

Robiner, W. N., Tompkins, T. L., & Hathaway, K. M. (2020). Prescriptive authority: Psychologists’ abridged training relative to other professions’ training. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 27(1), e12309. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12309

Sofka, S., Grey, C., Lerfald, N., Davisson, L., & Howsare, J. (2018). Implementing a universal well-being assessment to mitigate barriers to resident utilization of mental health resources. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 10(1), 63-66. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-17-00405.1

Yellowlees, P., & Shore, J. H. (2018). Telepsychiatry and health technologies: a guide for mental health professionals. American Psychiatric Pub.