Milestone 1
A Looming Mental Health Crisis and Psychiatrist Shortage in Concord City, New Hampshire
- Description of the Concord,NH community.
Access to quality and affordable health services is every persons right in the United States. Concord City is experiencing difficulties to find the mental practitioners who will offer services to the citizens who are in dire need of these services. The problem frequently arises due to the fact that the government is unable to pay these practitioners a salary that commensurates the current marketing standards. As a consequence, they are unwilling to work in these facilities at such a salary (Rich-Kern, 2016).
- Identification of a specific population.
The case in Concord, New Hampshire is critical since there are acute crises of the mental specialists shortage. Due to this problem, the Depart of Health in the region is unable to provide mental health services to the city residents based in the area as there no enough practitioners to offer these services.
- A problem statement that includes 1. – Scientific evidence about the impact of the particular condition and 2.- The impact of this condition in the Concord,NH population.
The shortage of the mental specialists has been so acute that it has led to the closure of the mental medical facilities that were once set up to address the problem. For instance, inpatient was shut down in 2010. This has resulted in the under the provision of the mental medical services to the young children with the psychotic symptoms which linger in the pediatric wards for a long period of time (Solomon 2016). The number of the hospital beds meant for the psychiatric patients in New Hampshire has also been declining gradually over the time. For instance, in 2010, there were about 189 psychiatric beds for the potentially dangerous patients who are normally admitted involuntarily. Nevertheless, this number has declined to 158 by 2016 leading to the loss of 30 beds (Rich-Kern, 2016). Due to the mental practitioners shortage in the region, the mental facilities available are highly congested, and in some cases, the patients are discharged before they have stabilized (Nesnera & Alle, 2016).
- What is currently being done in the Concord community for the NH population.
Currently, the NH citizens health inventiveness, is recruiting more primary care givers as well as health specialists into the initiative of learning collaborative that will integrate behavioral health into the primary care program. This integration will over time will improve on the patients health and the overall health outcomes as they implement the evidence based practice. In other cases, the facilities have been opened up, but due to the shortage of the psychiatrist nurses, the operations have been delayed for a long time even for up to a period one year.
- In relation to problems that Concord face, how is data different in Concord NH than the rest of the state?
Despite the fact that mental specialist problem is a serious problem in the country, the problem seems to hit hard some regions such as Concord as compared to other areas. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is increased need of these services in the country, but their provision is limited by the number of qualified medical staffs available to offer the behavioral health services. The current health statistic reveals that one individual out of the five citizens lives with a mental condition (Rich-Kern, 2016). This clearly depicts how bad the situation is in this region.
- How Concord is different than the rest of the state
Other populations are offering and delivering quality services to the mental health departments as compared to Concord. Lousiana for instance, have improved their training by extending this training to the metal care providers while other parts of the country offer mental health outreach programs for instance in Wyoming (Szabo 2013) It is thus evident that some populations of the US country have well organized and managed mental health programs with adequate mental health specialists and housing facilities for the mentally ill patients. This is not the case in Concord and as there are shortages of mental care providers.
- OBJECTIVE data and OBSERVATION DATA
It is clear that 25-30% of the visits that are made for primary medical care in Concord, either originate from behavioral health aspect. Patients tend to have depression and anxiety with some signs of chronic medical condition. These signs increase the cost as they require more attention from mental health specialists. In conclusion, There is a need for the government to respond to the mental health crises in the city and act swiftly to alleviate the problem so as to ensure all its citizens have access to the health services that are not only of high quality but which are also affordable all the time.
References
RICH-KERN, S. (2016). Psychiatric Services Gap Widens in NH. Business NH Magazine, 33(9), 31.
Solomon, D. (2016, July 21). Growing Pains for State Hospital's Crisis Unit. New Hampshire Union Leader. http://www.unionleader.com/health/Growing-pains-for-state-hospitals-crisis-unit-07222016
Nesnera, A.. & Allen, D.E. (2016). Expanding the Role of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners in a State Psychiatric System: The New Hampshire Experience. Psychiatric Services 67:5, May 2016.
Szabo L (2013). State Report Card on Mental Health Care. Retrieved from: www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/07/states-mental-health/1805023/
