Mental Health Care And Social Policy
Many people approach mental health in different ways, some use science or biology, while others prefer to be conservative and use holistic, humanistic or social approaches. All these definitions enable an integration to be made for the benefits of the mentally ill. The mentally handicapped have been in no doubt been the minority in the society and tend to be ignored by the majority in society.
They are seen to have no meaning in society whatsoever. Many families are stigmatized by the presence or birth of a mentally impaired individual in their families. The doctors have been more considerate to them and they have been administering medicines and offering psychiatric help whenever needed. Comparing the residual model of mental health care in the United States of America with Canada’s Industrial Redistributive Model of Mental Health Care they tend to look alike in administration and social policy.
The models involved
There are many models that are involved to care fore the mentally ill. They include; Disease management programs, Models of quality improvement, Onsite mental health professionals (consultation-liaison), Counseling and psychotherapy within primary care, and Organizational or educational interventions. There is rise in arguments with the best models of recovery for the mentally ill, these models are crucial in mental health policy (Buchanan-Barker, 2005 p.34). The models are also important on the practices, and systematic methods of delivering care with respect to chronic illness. There is need to have an integrative approach in order to have progress in high quality recoveries associated with mental health care.
Mental illnesses have no defined recovery process and many patients are monitored even after normal behavior is seen. But as cited by (Lester, & Gask, 2006 p. 407) recovery is achieved when the way of living can be termed as satisfying, hopeful, and contributive even with the limitations caused by the illness. He continues to describe recovery as the development of a new meaning and purpose of the patient’s life as one move or grows from the catastrophic effects of mental disorder. Recently models that take in to consideration the need for internal conditions of hope, healing and empowering the recovering person and the external conditions that facilitate recovery have been developed. The use of modern conceptual models can help to eliminate the gap between research findings on mental health and policy development.
The use of systematic reviews in medical health care which have been used traditionally for clinical decision making and giving the evidence to policy makers will be a complex agenda. The best would be to use the conceptual models which are abstract representations of complex areas. The models can then assist in the validation of the data from systematic reviews. In the primary care of mental health there is basic prevention and curative measures at the first point of the health care process. Proper mental health care procedures involve passing through five levels and three filters between community and specialist or psychiatrics care. Level one is the general population level, which is followed by the first filter level of illness behavior.
The second level is the psychiatric disorder in primary care clinician, which is followed by the second filter level the recognition by primary care clinician. The third level involves the conspicuous psychiatric morbidity followed by the third filter level the referral to specialist care. The fourth and fifth levels are merged as the specialist care procedures. The major goals of mental health care in primary care would be effectiveness, efficiency, access and equity (Repper, & Perkins, 2003 p.46).
Many mental health institutions have been face with several limitations that the policy makers tend to solve in the models. By offering adequate training including short term courses and guidelines to the staff involved, consultations liaison, collaboration care, replacement and referral. Many institutions either non governmental (NGO’s) or governmental are now rising to offer medical care to the medically impaired.
The historical perspective
In Canada, the Royal Ottawa hospital is the largest provider of specialized mental health services and gets referrals from all over the country. The national psychiatric and mental health nursing community chose to create and participate in a specialty certification program. Some nurses specialized in psychiatric and mental health nursing, which focuses in promoting mental health, preventing mental illnesses, and caring for the clients who have mental illness. This was the tidal model of caring for the patients.
This model emphasized on collaboration and partnerships together with interdisciplinary teamwork and narrative interventions. The registered nurses of Ontario developed practical guidelines for client-centered care. They had recommendations such as: – nurses embrace as foundation to client-centered care the stated values and beliefs. Respect, human dignity, clients are experts of their own lives, clients as leaders, clients’ goal coordinate car of the health care team, continuity and consistency of care and care givers, timeless, responsiveness, and universal access to care (Buchanan-Barker, 2005 p.220). The Royal Ottawa Hospital articulated the vision to be an internationally leading center of excellence in relation to mental and psychiatric health nursing. It aim this through commitment, person centered professional practice and scholarships. The hospital became the first North American hospital to get acquaintance for the tidal model. The model was basically used for mood and anxiety, forensic, and substance use and concurrent disorders.
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