Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Overview

Psychosocial problems, that is a national health emergency, are one of the major challenges that have opened my eyes as a psychiatric NP. The shortage of trained mental health professionals for people suffering from severe mental illnesses, in turn, is threatening the provision of necessary psychiatric services to those in urgent need of mental healthcare. Moreover, the number of individuals seeking help for their mental well-being is on the rise and includes numerous age groups. They are more pronounced in my health system and the mental health clinic where I am a worker, leading to the making of lists of people waiting for long and also being the cause of the treatment delays for the patients.

Quantifying the Impact on the Organization

The organization I work for has not been able to cope with the shortage of mental health care providers because of this reason. The result of this is the fact that as we have very little time and capacity, many patients have to wait a long time—sometimes as much as months—before having the chance to get therapy or medication management services. In the same way, patients with real mental health concerns, who are not urgent cases, are left without any other option but to either wait or look for physicians from outside our network. Meanwhile, our team always strives to prioritize emergency cases.

Our organization’s data shows that patients who are not in urgent need take three to four months to get an appointment. The amount of pressure put on our resources has also risen by 25% compared to a year ago because the number of patients coming for mental wellness services at our clinic has increased by 25%. As a result of these extended waitings and capacity limitations, not only the accessibility to essential medical attention is impeded, but also the probability of undesirable outcomes for people with illnesses that can deteriorate if the right treatment is not started on time is raised.

How Other Organizations Are Addressing the Issue

It becomes immediately evident from academic publications on this topic that groups from all around the country struggle with the pervasive issue of people not having access to mental health services. To tackle mental healthcare scarcity and minimize inequities, Deferio et al. (2019) underline the central role of work on socioeconomic determinants of health, including access to high-class healthcare. According to Kumar et al. (2020), psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners play a significant role in facilitating mental healthcare reach, especially for marginalized communities.

Some other organizations have given a different answer to this problem with the help of telepsychiatry programs that serve the purpose of such services in remote areas (Adler et al., 2022). This guarantees patients in these areas increased access and, consequently, increased capacity as well. Integrated treatment is the approach that many organizations use to provide high-quality and coordinated care. Integrated care models even include placing mental health specialists in primary care settings (Raney et al., 2021).

Strategies and Potential Impact on the Organization

As many studies in this domain show, there are various ways to curb the effects that come from the lack of proper mental health care for people. One strategy is to increase the number of telepsychiatrists and teletherapists the organization offers. Accordingly, this will remove geographical boundaries for healthcare access by enabling remote patients to be cared for and lowering barriers created by these complications. As a result, this approach could alleviate the circumstances of patients who live in rural areas or have transportation problems so that medical facilities would be open to them for a shorter period and be more accessible.

Developing and implementing collaboration for sharing mental health services is also important to explore joint ventures with other healthcare companies or community establishments. A possible avenue of exploration is consolidating efforts and creating an association of clinicians whose activities would be complementary and might provide patients with faster access to treatment and increased capacity. However, there could be difficulties in putting these plans into practice. In order to expand the services offered by teletherapy and telepsychiatry, substantial investment in technical infrastructure, provider training, and adherence to best practices and laws for virtual care delivery would be necessary. Additionally, working with numerous partnering organizations to distribute treatment in all of these institutions may result in administrative troubles and a possibility of data leakage and patient privacy.

Looking Ahead

To solve the problem of limited access to mental health services, my organization has aimed to ease the situation by training therapists and mental health nurses, making evaluations available, and many other measures, but, unfortunately, the demand for the services overwhelmingly exceeds our ability to provide them. As it has been outlined by Broome and Marshall (2021), there will be a need to deliver innovations and administrative chances at each care level because it is a way to ensure that everyone has timely and equitable access to professional mental healthcare.

For the most part, the organization must work out creative means by thinking ahead. One of the methods to achieve this could include widening the opportunities in virtual treatment, joining strategic alliances with other organizations, and lobbying for parliamentary bills that ensure the advancement and provision of more funds and resources for mental health services. Further, purposeful work of the community may yield a more positive outcome for our patients, less stress on our system, and a feeling of well-being in the community when we fill in the gap in mental health care. The complex but necessary challenge of this is to ensure that everyone inside the community has the required resources and assistance to safeguard their mental health, which calls for a plan of action that involves the whole community.

References

Adler, R. S., Ershov, A., Greenwood, N., & Jones, A. (2022). Telepsychiatry in practice: Designing and implementing a successful program. American Psychiatric Association Publishing.

Broome, M. E., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. Springer Publishing Company.

Deferio, J. J., Breitinger, S., Khullar, D., Sheth, A., & Pathak, J. (2019). Social determinants of health in mental health care and research: A case for greater inclusion. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(8-9), 895–899. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz049

Kumar, A., Kearney, A., Hoskins, K., & Iyengar, A. (2020). The role of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners in improving mental and behavioral health care delivery for children and adolescents in multiple settings. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(5), 275–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.07.022

Raney, L., Bergman, D., Torous, J., & Schmittdiel, J. (2021). Integrating mental health and technology in the primary care setting: A review with recommendations for overcoming challenges. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36(12), 3811–3818. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-07112-5

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Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (2-3 Pages):

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Develop a 2 to 3-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:

Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
Provide a summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.
Looking Ahead

The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper.