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Introduction
Access to quality health care services is crucial in most countries across the world. However, most people tend to concentrate on physical health and forget the psychological side of it. An individual’s health status is an aggregate of physical and mental health, hence the need to focus on the two components. With approximately half of the world’s population experiencing the effects of mental illnesses, different countries have implemented a variety of strategies in response to psychological health. In the United States, both the federal and state governments have implemented a variety of measures aimed at eliminating mental illnesses. The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate how the society has responded to the issue of mental disorders and mental health.
Social Policy
In a bid to promote psychological health, the federal government implemented a criminal justice system that supports psychological health. In the United States, significant proportions of the incarcerated persons depict mental disorders with female inmates taking the lead. Nevertheless, researchers have documented an increment in the rate of mental disorders among inmates as opposed to the members of the general population (Bouchard 2004).
With the prevailing condition in prisons and among members of the public, the federal government implemented various models to guide the police in responding to incidents involving people with psychological disorders. The programs work in conjunction with the country’s system of criminal justice to promote justice even amongst individuals with mental challenges. First, police officers are required to report the problem at a crisis centre, on realising that the person in question depicts mental disorders. The policy that authorises the operations of such centres focuses on the case of people that do not deny or resist police arrests. Although it is a crucial move towards the administration of justice, one should question what happens to those who resist arrests, yet they depict signs of mental disorders (Steadman et al. 2000).
Considering the view that the police have the power to coerce these people into accepting their accusations (Bouchard 2004), it is vital to extend assistance to those that resist arrests. Police-based diversion programs are implemented before or after booking. For pre-booking programs, the police avoid direct arrests and refer culprits to community programs. Furthermore, police officers use innovative practices and training to ensure free access for people requiring mental health services coupled with subjecting them to community service for easy access to relevant rehabilitation. Alternatively, the police can drop such persons in triage centres from where they are referred for appropriate treatment (Steadman et al. 2000).
Apart from promoting mental health in correctional facilities, the federal government has implemented a social policy that promotes its responsibility towards caring for the mental health of its citizens. The social policy is so comprehensive that it covers a variety of areas ranging from providing appropriate environmental conditions to conducting national awareness campaigns that aim at sensitising people concerning the issue of mental disorders (Ruddick 2013). From this policy, it is clear that the federal government has taken the responsibility to provide subsidised mental health care to its citizens. In a bid to promote the quality of such health care, the government ensures that it trains nurses to equip them with potential intervention strategies to promote positive mental health (Killaspy 2014).
In the course of the subsidised training, nurses are taught to embrace solution-focused approaches and integrate them into their traditional nursing roles to promote communication and the level of interaction with the patient. With such training, nurses are bound to focus on the patients’ capabilities rather than the disorder. With reference to the traditional nursing practices, the majority of nurses focus on treating the illness.
However, with the solution-focused therapy, a nurse is bound to concentrate on the patients’ resources and goals, thus helping them make informed and constructive decisions. Although people with mental disorders may require psychiatric help, solution-focused therapy is relatively cheap and efficient (Ruddick 2013). From this analysis, it is evident that in the course of training, nurses acquire adequate skills through which they assess mental health needs. Such assessments help nurses to adopt appropriate frameworks in relation to the nursing practice. With the help of appropriate frameworks, nurses maximise their potential for early identification and implementation of intervention measures (Killaspy 2014).
In addition, the social policy focuses on improving the working environment by requiring employers to conduct mental tests on employees to determine their mental health status. Furthermore, the policy compels organisations among other employers to provide counselling services and finance part of the treatment expenses incurred by the affected employees (Killaspy 2014). The government took such measures against employers because the nature of the working environment affects people’s mental health significantly. In the recent times, the federal government in conjunction with other health agencies has assumed the responsibility of sensitising people concerning the issue of mental disorders and mental health.
The national campaigns aim at informing people and educating them on issues concerning poverty eradication as a way of improving health and living standards in general. The eradication of poverty includes promoting healthy living conditions among members of the public. Improved public mental health accounts for the reduction in healthcare costs and reduced productivity, thus a reduction in the country’s economic costs, especially in connection with the expenses incurred in treating mental illnesses (Ruddick 2013).
Three-states plan
Some of the mental disorders arise from trauma following the occurrence of a traumatic event such as fatal accident and baneful terror attacks among other unexpected events. The federal government has responded to the rising cases of mental disorders by instituting appropriate disaster mental health responses. Following the 9/11 attacks, the federal government implemented the three-state plans that entailed an integration of various best clinical and non-clinical measures that aim at helping the affected persons (North 2013).
In responding to the disaster of mental health conditions, the three-state plans depart from the traditional psychotherapy models as the plans aims at preventing acute stress, thus restoring the person’s mental health status. Furthermore, the federal government advocates the implementation of therapeutic programs in the course of the event or immediately after the incident. Toward the end of the 1980s, the federal government passed a disaster relief and emergency assistance bill. The 1988 Act aimed at introducing three mental health models to deal with the victims of disaster (McIntyre, Goff & Briana 2012).
The models included psychological first aid, traumatic stress management, and critical incident stress management. In the recent times, the federal government has adopted a program that aims at providing counselling services at the time of a crisis and it caters for disasters declared by the federal government. Furthermore, the program is unique, as it does not focus on the psychotherapy techniques. Crisis counselling program is administered under the watch of health professionals as opposed to those specialising in mental health issues. Furthermore, the involved health professionals work together with the affected community to restore sanity to the affected persons. In such circumstances, health professionals in question are mandated to educate people on how they should respond to disasters. In addition, the program advocates the provision of supportive counselling and professional referrals in case of a need (McIntyre, Goff & Briana 2012).
Although the disaster plans are comprehensive, McIntyre, Goff, and Briana (2012) highlight that some of the states depict reluctance in implementing these measures. Some of these states are rarely hit by disasters. Furthermore, as the government requires states to have additional disaster mental plans, most of them have vague plans that are characterised by incomprehensive content (McIntyre, Goff& Briana 2012).
However, such inefficiencies can be attributed to the lack of sufficient training to equip state directors with knowledge and skills on how to administer the crisis programs. Elrod, Hamblen and Norris (2006) argue that administrative directors lack knowledge and skills on how to balance community demands and administrative needs. However, they recommend that the government should promote psychological response when dealing with the disaster victims among other affected persons (Elrod, Hamblen & Norris 2006).According to McIntyre, Goff, and Briana (2012), the federal government finances crisis counselling programs and it has a grants kitty to cater for disaster mental health response within states. Furthermore, the government assumes the responsibility for ensuring that states execute the written disaster mental health plans in preparedness for terror attacks among other disaster events (McIntyre, Goff & Briana 2012).
International Response
With the rising cases of mental disorders across the world, the World Health Organisation is committed to helping governments in promoting and strengthening strategies aimed at improving mental health. The WHO together with other international health organisations in conjunctions with governments evaluates various policies and plans implemented by different countries before providing improvements. Furthermore, the organisations play a crucial role in disseminating such information to people through different platforms (Alonso, et al. 2011).
The sensitisation exercise aims at educating people concerning their rights to quality health care, which includes mental health care. In the course of the sensitisation campaigns, people also know what their countries are doing, coupled with what they ought to do in a bid to promote mental health. Apart from the plans and policies that are implemented by individual countries, the WHO implements an international action plan that promotes psychological health across the globe. In the course of 2013, the WHO approved a mental health action plan, whose implementation plan would be complete by 2020 (Andrade et al. 2014).
According to this plan, the WHO provided a comprehensive plan comprising of certain actions that member states should implement to promote mental health and eliminate or reduce mental illnesses and disorders. Nevertheless, the specific strategies are meant to supplement the countries’ strategies, thus fastening the rate at which they attain the determined global targets in relation to improving mental health (Icick et al. 2014).
In the United States, strategies aimed at improving mental health focus on psychotherapeutic techniques. On the contrary, strategies implemented by the WHO focus on psychotherapeutic and administration techniques among other non-psychotherapy techniques (Alonso et al. 2011). Among the WHO’s goals include providing care and enhancing recovery among people affected by mental disorders. Healthcare providers use psychiatric and psychological techniques in caring for the mentally ill persons. With a focus on providing care to people with mental disorders, it is evident that the WHO advocates and approves the implementation of strategies that integrate psychiatric and psychological therapeutic techniques.
Icick et al. (2014) highlight that promoting human rights and reducing the rate of mortality and disability among people as the WHO’s primary goal. It is a human right for people to access basic health care. Nevertheless, health care entails physical and mental care. From this analysis, it is evident that by promoting strategies that aim at improving mental health, the WHO acts within its mandates and primary goal of promoting human rights (Icick et al. 2014).
In a bid to strengthen mental health and eliminate mental disorders among people across the world, the WHO focuses on administrative strategies aimed at improving and strengthening leadership and governance in mental institutions. Such a strategy aims at complementing most of the state plans implemented in the United States. The state directors in some places blame the lack of administrative skills for the implementation of inadequate and vague plans. In addition, the WHO has implemented a mental health gap program that aims at enhancing appropriate treatment by improving skills of health workers involved in general and mental health care. In evaluating the extents to which countries are responsive to the people’s mental health needs, the WHO participates in the reorganisation and evaluation of mental health care services rendered by member states (Icick et al. 2014).
Conclusion
With the increment in the rate of mental disorders across the globe, countries have implemented a variety of measures in response to the issue. The United States has a social policy that encourages the sensitisation and financing of strategies aimed at promoting mental health among the citizens. Furthermore, the country’s criminal justice system integrates programs aimed at promoting the mental health status of the incarcerated persons. Moreover, the federal government implemented a crisis-counselling program in response to mental disorders arising from disasters. In addition, the WHO has implemented comprehensive mental health strategies that aim at improving the mental health status in member countries.
Reference List
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