Hello, everyone! I can’t wait for another great semester with lots of learning and new insights on different healthcare related topics. The national healthcare issue I have selected to discuss and analyze is lack of mental health resources. I am a medication assisted treatment (MAT) nurse at a clinic called United Community Services (UCS). In addition to providing patients with substance abuse treatment, we also offer mental health services, as substance use disorders and mental health disorders go hand-in-hand. For example, I have had multiple patients report that flare-up of their mental health symptoms has led to increased cravings and them eventually relapsing. We have two mental health providers at UCS. We have had a position open since October, 2022 in hopes of adding another mental health provider to the team, but unfortunately, the position is just not getting filled. Appointments to establish care with a mental health provider are currently booked out until the end of July. That is almost two months, which is a HUGE problem! Mental health needs are time sensitive, and it’s so upsetting to think that individuals may finally get the courage to reach out and ask for help, only to find out that they have to wait another two months for treatment. I know this isn’t just a problem at my current place of employment. I have previously worked at Broadlawns, which is a county hospital. We were booked out months for appointments as well, and at one point, we weren’t accepting new patients.
The issue of lack of mental health resources impacts my current work setting as mental health symptoms may be exacerbated by substance use, and vise versa. While a patient may be adequately treated for their substance use disorder, their mental health treatment may be lacking. The patient needs to be treated holistically, which means addressing all systems to improve health outcomes and patient experience. In the United States, 7.7 million adults have co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders. 52.5% received neither mental health nor substance abuse treatment. In regards to barriers to treatment, 52.2% of patients could not afford cost, 23.8% did not know where to go for treatment, 23% believed that they could handle their problem without treatment, 13.6% had a fear of being committed, 11.1% felt that treatment would not help, 10.6% felt they did not have time, and 10.1% were concerned about confidentiality (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018).
Social determinants are non-medical factors that include health outcomes, which can include education, working life conditions, income, housing, early childhood development, social inclusion, and access to affordable healthcare (World Health Organization, 2023). Social determinants that most affect lack of mental health resources include cost of treatment, lack of education and knowledge regarding where and when to seek treatment, and lack of housing/lack of stable living environment.
My healthcare work setting has responded to the issue of lack of mental health resources by providing tuition reimbursement to staff. Personally, I am utilizing this tuition reimbursement to go back to school to become a PMH-NP, which helps to address the issue of lack of mental health services by having more individuals trained and certified to treat mental illness. We have brochures with lists that we provide to patients that have information on walk-in psychiatric urgent cares in the area, as we are booked so far out for new patient appointments. UCS offers Telehealth appointments to patients, which is beneficial for patients that needs psychiatric services but may not have transportation. About 45% of the homeless population suffers from mental illness (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2020). We have a grants team that assists patients in obtaining grants to help cover the costs of different things such as clothing, toiletries, wellness, and housing assistance.
References
National Alliance on Mental Health. (2020). Ways we can address the social determinants of mental health. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/August-2020/Ways-We-Can-Address-the-Social-Determinants-of-Mental-HealthLinks to an external site.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Comorbidity: Substance use and other mental health disorders. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/comorbidity-sub
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