Mental Health Disparities: Certification of Authorship - Essay Sample

Abstract

People face disparities in every facet of their lives. One of the most common forms of disparity is mental health. Mental health disparities affect millions of people globally. However, the quality of care and the treatment options available for mental health patients is limited. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) wrote a report in 2012, which indicated that over 42 million adults in America have psychological illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia (Bekiempas, 2014). The report by SAMHSA also noted that 4% of American citizens above the age of 18 and over have their daily activities such as maintaining relationships, going to work, and caring for themselves hindered by the classification of serious mental health illnesses. The purpose of this paper is to identify a bill that affects mental health, the impact of the bill, the creation of an implementation plan, and an evaluation of the plan. The paper will provide a thought-provoking assessment of the aspects needed in the improvement of mental health care to help those affected.

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Introduction

As a healthcare professional, the possibility of coming across people with different mental health disparities is high. Mental health is one of the several disparities known by many. Even in politics, many politicians fear to talk about mental health because of their fear of retribution. In July 2016, Republican state representative Tim Murphy (Congress.gov, 2016) enacted the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (H.R. 2646). The House passed the Act (Congress.gov, 2016). Psychological, psychiatric, and support services are being made available to help people with mental health disparities. Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act aims to enhance lapses in mental health programs, issue medications, and substance management procedures, carry out reviews of suitable treatments, and nurture family support groups. resources for mental health populations are limited. Due to this, the implementation of the Bill will bridge the gap and be beneficial for mental health groups.

Bill Position

In the political arena, when an individual expresses their position, they always feel the need to be politically correct. The question remains why do people want to be politically correct when airing their views? Might it be that a person states his or her position to be agreeable to everyone else or do they air their views according to the way they perceive it? My position on this Bill is referenced from moral grounds. In its entirety, I believe that the Bill is great because it serves its purpose of supporting mental health groups. However, I think that the Bill has come too late because, for a long time, people with mental health disparities have suffered without any meaningful assistance from the government.

My position means that I support the Bill but only because it is a means to an end. From a personal perspective, the Bill is a rehab of previously introduced Bills such as the one put forward by former president Barrack Obama when he was in the Senate and coagulation of other disparities affecting health and well-being. The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act is also an adaptation of the 21st-century Cures Act that was discussed on the Energy and Commerce Committees' webpage and supported by former president Barrack Obama (Mukherjee, 2016). The increase in cases of mental health increased the need for this Bill. Suicide, for example, has been on the rise over recent years. People have begun to comprehend the need for early recognition of suicidal tendencies because it is a co-occurring form of mental health disparities.

Mental health cases are on the rise because of several reasons. For example, racial tensions, the divisions of the country, and the remarks by the new president are making the world to become more stressful and demanding, which increases cases of mental health problems. As a healthcare practitioner in the emergency room, the most common forms of mental health that I come across often are depression and anxiety. Besides, it is believable that people's pressure to live up to societal expectations is likely to cause them to have mental health problems. Mental health populations do not receive individualized and comprehensive care from psychiatrists and the necessary medications that they need. This is the reason the Bill is significant. In Chicagoland and across America, many mental health institutions were closed. Today, other local hospitals are struggling to accommodate all mental health patients. In the ER, most patients wait for up to 48 hours to receive a bed since Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) require nurses to keep patients in-house until a bed is available for them. Furthermore, local hospitals are overcrowded and cannot provide mental health patients with the care that they need.

Over the years, there will be a great concern of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act to the elderly. The baby boomer generation is slowly moving into old age. As per a report by the CDC, over 9000 adults died in 2011 from suicide (Greenlee & Hyde,

2014). The authors indicated that it is imperative to know the signs and symptoms of suicide among the elderly. The high number of suicide rates show the need and importance of talking about and helping people with mental health disparities. The establishment of the Act will help to alleviate many mental health disparities. The Bill would improve the healthcare sector and the entire community.

Impact of Bill on Stakeholders

There are numerous but specific stakeholders in the topic of mental health disparities. The stakeholders in mental health include the patients, their families, health care workers. Most importantly, the community who notice the lack of care and homelessness of the mentally ill are part of stakeholders.

The Bill impacts stakeholders in various ways. Mental health patients and their families will receive numerous benefits from the Bill. The Bill's plan is to remove tax dollar services and the treatment of mental health patients from the jail system and incorporate them into the community. Moving mental health programs into the community will help to increase access to care for mental health patients. Aarons, Wells, Zagursky, Fettes, and Palinkas (2009) stated that as the proof base for health services improves, an associative commitment emerges to guarantee that community-based health care providers consolidate the best logical proof with clinical mastery and customer inclinations that is, to participate in evidence-based practice (EBP). Compelling treatment practices frequently take 15 to 20 years to diffuse into basic practice, a postpone that causes superfluous expenses and enduring; this is a basic concern (Aarons, 2009). The moderate joining of logical proof into training has especially genuine ramifications for the public sector and mental health frameworks that serve huge numbers of the most helpless people and families (Aarons, 2009). Individuals from these populaces frequently experience issues getting to administrations and have not many other options if medications are not viable (Aarons, 2009). Mental health agencies in the public centers need to actualize and use the best practitioners most appropriate to the framework, office, supplier, and customer, clinical and contextual conditions (Aarons, 2009). Health care workers, as well as the community, will benefit from the transfer of resources because of aspects such as reduced costs and accessibility. Most importantly, the reallocation of resources will be beneficial to local hospitals because they will manage to provide accurate diagnoses and offer individualized care treatment plans for mental health patients. Undoubtedly, all stakeholders will thrive after the implementation of this Bill because it will minimize the chances of re-hospitalization and facilitate the smooth recovery process.

In 2015, the federal government released a projection that was expected to provide a net subsidy for health insurance coverage for citizens with mental health and are under 65 years (Mental Health America, 2015). The health insurance coverage was $660 Billion in 2016 and $8.9 trillion during the 2017-2026 period (Mental Health America, 2015). These numbers, however, have increased since the budget and the rise of the number of mental health patients do not match. Needless to say, the funds will improve the quality of care for mental health patients by a large margin.

Nurses play a huge role in providing services for mental health patients. For example, nurses provide guide their local communities and inform people about the appropriate healthcare services available to both citizens and residents of America. Maryland and Gonzales (2012) affirm that the contribution of nurses towards access to proper, effective, and operative care should not be underestimated.

In the 1800s towards the 1900s, Illinois built many mental health hospitals because there was a shortage of hospitals to treat and accommodate mental health patients (The Newberry, 2012). Today, the state has had 14 mental health hospitals (The Newberry, 2012). In the mental health centers in Illinois, mentally ill patients, as well as criminals found guilty by reason of insanity, were housed for long-term care (Opacity, n.d). Due to the high numbers of patients admitted at the Illinois mental health centers, staff shortage began to occur, which caused a minimum flow of funds and the maintenance of the facilities begun to dwindle (Opacity, n.d). legislative budget cuts were a travesty to the patients because they were left without counseling, medication, and a safe place to get treatment for their mental health disparities.

In today's society, many patients do not have health care insurance. Patients who are covered seek plans from Medicare or Medicaid advancements such as health homes for enrollees with mental and behavioral health issues as well as chronic conditions. The costs involved with Medicare and Medicaid are to recruit staff specialized in mental health and those of expanding mental health centers to accommodate the treatment of patients (Jones & Ku, 2015). Due to this issue, there is a need for recruiting qualified and competent mental health care staff as well as opening new mental health centers, hospitals, and homes to accommodate patients.

Furthermore, in the Mental Health projections of 2015, areas where funds should be spent were included. For example, funds were allocated to staff education including social workers and mental health nurses. Appropriate mental health education will undoubtedly enable patients and their families to thrive because they will live a quality life. Besides that, the education will provide caregivers who are new to the specialty of mental health with the knowledge on how to approach patients with mental health and deliver quality care necessary to live a happy life. Additionally, education will enable caregivers to promote autonomy to mental health patients and their families. Most importantly, through education, the community will see a change especially in cases such as petty crimes since most mental health issues go unnoticed. More so, healthcare workers will be more confident about their job. In the long-run, performance levels at the mental healthcare centers will be improved and pat...