Mental health care importance

Professionals working with a suicidal drug client may wish to determine whether the person meets criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline clients often have a history of suicidal behavior and high utilization of health and mental health care services. Most people who meet criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder are women, but not all. As mentioned, some professionals find it difficult to work with borderline clients without becoming very upset or cynical. If you cannot work with such a client respectfully, then it is recommended that a referral be made to someone who can (see Chapter 3). Treating the client with dignity is important if trust and a solid therapeutic alliance are to develop. 

Families are often significantly affected by a family member s SUD. There are few areas in mental health care where patient and family education are as important as they are in the treatment of SUDs. The initial management and intervention described above is focused on educating the patient and family about the nature of SUDs and the need for abstinence. The process of intervention is rarely effective in a single visit, and typically the therapist must conclude the effort with a mutual agreement to keep the door open for future discussion. Referral to AA, Alanon, and Alateen may provide the patient and family with excellent information and edncational materials. 

The fourth goal of the conference report on children s mental health calls for the elimination of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in access to mental health care services. Schools are perceived as an important part of the strategy for enhancing access to mental health services for children. The conference report recommends that mental health services be colocated with other key systems, such as education, to improve access, especially in remote or rural communities. It also advises that if schools resource capacities are strengthened, they can serve as a key link to a comprehensive system of school- and community-based identification, assessment, and treatment services for meeting the needs of youth and their families. 

The partnership within the school demonstrated the value of involving families and family advocates in mental health care. The clinician reported that developing informal relationships with families led to increased service utilization as well as to increased comfort with clinicians and the therapeutic process. In addition, the outreach efforts led to more effective service implementation, as families were more involved in their children s treatment. In addition, the clinician was able to respond to the broad family needs in the school community by partnering with the family advocate and parent liaison to provide education on topics of interest to families and to develop opportunities for networking and support. The school mental health clinician and the principal of the school recognized the importance of including paraprofessionals in outreach and quality care. They hope to continue this model of collaboration and outreach to families to promote involvement. 

The large gap between efficacy and effectiveness research has resulted in a new consensus regarding the need for research that will inform practice (National Institute of Mental Health, 1999 Weisz, 2000). Epidemiological studies indicate that fewer than 20% of children who need mental health care actually receive any services (Goodman et al., 1997). Earlier studies indicated that of those children who did receive services, fewer than 50% received the appropriate service relative to their need (Kazdin, 1996). These realities have led to two important movements in child mental health services efforts to increase the effectiveness of services principally by advocating evidence-based treatments (Hibbs Jensen, 1997 Weisz, 2000) and calls for alternative models for mental health services (Bums, 1999 National Institute of Mental Health, 1999). 

School-based health centers with esmh can assume an important role in integrating children and youth with special health care needs into the community system of health care. This role is most important for youth who are uninsured. Uninsured children are four times more likely than insured children to have an unmet health need such as a need for medical care, mental health care, and prescriptions (Newacheck Taylor, 1992). Case managers and clinicians in schools... 

The nurse observesthe elderly patient receiving a cholinergic blocking drug at frequent intervals for excitement, agitation, mental confusion, drowsiness urinary retention, or other adverse effects. If any of these should occur, it is important to withhold the next dose of the drug and contact the primary health care provider. The nurse ensures patient safety until these adverse reactions disappear. 

Other important documents in HSTAT include the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference Reports and Technology Assessment Reports the HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service (ATIS) resource documents the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT) Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIP) and Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (SAMHSA/CSAP) Prevention Enhancement Protocols System (PEPS) the Public Health Service (PHS) Preventive Services Task Force s Guide to Clinical Preventive Services the independent, nonfederal Task Force on Community Services Guide to Community Preventive Services and the Health Technology Advisory Committee (HTAC) of the Minnesota Health Care Commission (MHCC) health technology evaluations. 

Patients with depression usually do not present initially to mental health professionals. Most visit their primary care physicians, complaining not of depressed mood but of other symptoms of depression. Fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite, loss of interest in sex, muscle tension, body aches, and poor concentration are all commonly reported. These so-called masked presentations of depression may in part explain the documented failure of primary care physicians to diagnose depression reliably. This underscores the importance of considering depression in the differential diagnosis of physical complaints that appear vague or exaggerated. 

It does bear special mention that many mental health practitioners consider lorazepam (Ativan) to be the most versatile of the benzodiazepines. Lorazepam has an intermediate onset and duration of action. Because it is easily metabolized, lorazepam is preferred when a benzodiazepine must be used to treat medically compromised or elderly patients. Most importantly, lorazepam is the only benzodiazepine that can be administered via oral, intramuscular, and intravenous routes. As a result, the transition between inpatient and outpatient care is rendered much easier with lorazepam than other benzodiazepines. 

In the United States approximately 10 million men have ED. While erectile function may not be the most important indicator of sexual satisfaction, ED may contribute to mental stress that affects interactions with family and associates. While many advances have occurred in the diagnosis and treatment of ED, other aspects remain poorly understood by the general population and even health care professionals. ED is frequently assumed to be a physiological event associated with aging, but that is not entirely accurate. 

Over 10 million women in the United States will suffer from the symptoms of mental illness during their childbearing years (Bourdon et ah, 1992 U.S. Census Bureau, 2000) and more than 50% of pregnancies are unplanned. These two facts emphasize the importance of educating women s health care providers regarding the risks associated with mental illness and the medications used to treat these disorders. 

It may sound simple, but it s true Happiness starts with taking care of your physical and mental health. Using diet pills or any other unhealthy weight loss method does exactly the opposite. The most important step people can take in becoming healthier is to become happy with who they are right now. 

This book is the result of our collective search for better ways to care for patients with mental health problems. Its purpose is to provide the information a non-MD therapist needs to know about psychotropic medication and collaborative care. It is intended for nonprescribing clinicians who work in mental health. We wrote it with two objectives in mind to give readers a basic sense of pharmacotherapy for various mental health disorders, and, more important, to provide a conceptual framework, a mind-set, and specific approaches for working in a collaborative care environment with medical professionals who do prescribe psychotropics. 

Because of the tremendous scope of the Twin Towers disaster, and the fact that there were so few of the physically injured to care for, 9/11 turned out to be primarily a mental health disaster. Experience with such disasters has served only to emphasize the importance of recruiting, screening, and training mental health professionals, paraprofessionals, and volunteers in order to have the personnel necessary to respond to the specific short- and long-term needs of those exposed to the disaster. 

In the United States, the majority of mental health services are provided by nonmedical therapists. Likewise, the majority of prescriptions for psychotropic medications are written by family practice and primary care physicians (see figure 1-A). Thus, even though psychiatrists represent the branch of medicine that specializes in psychopharmacology, they are directly responsible for providing only a fraction of professional services to the mentally ill. Consequently it is becoming increasingly important for all mental health clinicians to have a basic familiarity with psychiatric medication treatment. 

Diagnostic and Statisticai Manuai ofMentai Disorders, 4th edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) is the most widely accepted and most important diagnostic reference used in the care of the mentally iU. It provides a common language for mental health practitioners to describe and diagnose psychiatric disorders. Common language is essential because there is considerable overlap of symptoms across... 

Professional social workers are not usually responsible for documenting the medication history. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of keeping careful records and documentation that supports the service a member of the interdisciplinary team provides. It is anticipated that the increased emphasis on effective treatment and outcome by managed care and regulatory organizations will require social workers and other mental health professionals to include specific medication-therapy information in counseling documentation. 

Providing brief, accurate, and informative documentation that includes both counseling and medication interventions requires skill and training. Social workers must learn to document important information that will assist the medication prescriber and other health care and mental health... 

Social work professionals can provide important services to those who suffer from anxiety conditions including assessment and diagnostic and treatment services. They can also assist clients by creating an environment for improved communication and coordination between the client and other health care professionals. Social workers can also facilitate communication and services with other treatment team professionals and primary health care providers as well as mental health and community-based programs. In terms of direct intervention efforts, many of the techniques described in this chapter to assist with anxiety can also be used to help clients suffering from depression because the symptoms of anxiety and depression frequently overlap. 

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