Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example

Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example

Mental Health Policy Paper

A mental health policy is a crucial federal/health authority statement that guides certain issues affecting mental health sectors by defining its critical aspects and model for action. As such, mental health policies define future visions to guide the establishment of frameworks for preventing, treating and rehabilitating mental in the community. Typically, policy changes result in improved treatments, access to services and better health outcomes for mental health patients. This paper summarizes a recent federal bill that will impact psychiatric mental healthcare, collaborative care, and access to treatment. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

H.R.2611 (117th) – Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021

The Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021 is federal-level legislation. Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, a representative for California, District 32, sponsored the Bill on 16 April 2021 to the House of Representatives. After that, the House of Representatives referred the Bill to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for action on 16 April 2021. House Committee on Energy and Commerce referred the Bill to the Subcommittee on Health. The Bill has not been passed and is currently with the Subcommittee on Health for deliberations. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

The Bill was introduced to repeal the restrictions that generally outlaw federal payment under Medicaid for services offered by the institutions of mental diseases (IMD) for patients below 65 years (The Congres.gov, 2021). Currently, States may only receive such payments through Medicaid demonstration waiver. Moreover, the Bill would require state Medicaid programs covering IMD services to improve access to outpatient and community-based behavioral health care, expand crisis stabilization services, facilitate coordination between providers, and report specified information relating to IMD utilization and costs. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Encouragement of the Bill

The Bill presents future accessibility to mental healthcare services and Medicaid coverage for individuals aged below 65 years. Mental health illnesses are diverse and dynamic, affecting the young and elderly alike. The Bill supports the maintenance of the primacy of patients’ needs, i.e., access and affordability of healthcare services, in the face of external pressures in changing social, economic and political climates (Carlson, Sweetland & Wainberg, 2018). In this regard, expanding the Medicaid coverage for individuals in mental health institutions aged below 65 years is a significant federal step in caring for its citizens. Considering the rising living costs, it is only ethical to allow payment under Medicaid for IMD services for patients under 65 years. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Legally, the Bill will play a crucial role in mandating IMD to attend to patients under Medicaid. Like other healthcare conditions, mental health illnesses require financial aid and comprehensive healthcare system support. For these reasons, the Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021 seeks to establish a crucial and future-centric mental healthcare support framework for the benefits of healthcare institutions, affected patients and their families. In this case, most mental health institutions will benefit from this coverage by receiving funding from Medicaid to allow seamless operations. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Furthermore, most American citizens cannot afford private health insurance coverage (Sainato, 2020), and only Medicaid provides affordable health insurance for most Americans. Therefore, mandating IMD to serve patients with mental illnesses will be a bold step towards healthcare accessibility and universality. Policy-wise, the Bill will allow state policies to ensure that the individuals receiving care in psychiatric hospitals and residential centers are consistently screened for physical health co-morbidities and substance use disorders before or upon admission. This will be crucial in ascertaining the IMDs capacity to address mental and physical health during admission and aid provision additional on-site or external healthcare services, referrals and care coordination. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

The current Social Security Act excluded individuals receiving mental health services in IMD (The Congres.gov, 2021), which I believe is against their right to accessible and quality care. With the current legislation, insurance coverage is limited to mental health patients aged 65 years and above. While mental health nursing institutions will benefit from increased funding, patients will benefit from various services, including basic mental health assessments, diagnosis, and treatment. Besides, the Bill increases the availability of services during a crisis will allow patients with serious mental health illnesses, emotional disturbance, and substance use disorder to get the immediate medical attention they deserve and inappropriate levels of care. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

The Bill’s Impact of the Role of PMHNP

Primary PMHNP roles include assessments, diagnosis, and establishing treatment plans for mental health patients (American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), 2019). Equally, most PMHNPs carry out psychological, social, and physical health assessments, treatment evaluation, and emergency psychiatric care services. The Bill has crucial provisions that directly and directly influence these roles.  These provisions are crucial to strengthen data sharing and coordination between healthcare teams, i.e., the physical, mental, and substance abuse teams in community-based behavioral health facilities and mental health hospitals (The Congres.gov, 2021). Data sharing and coordination will allow the PMHNP to assess patients, make definitive diagnoses and treatment plans. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Furthermore, the Bill strengthens the need for IMDs to demonstrate the state’s strategies to identify and engage individuals, including adolescents and young adults, having critical mental health illnesses, emotional breakdown, and substance abuse disorders (The Congres.gov, 2021). Besides, IMDs must demonstrate the State Medicaid agency’s applicable and established utilization policies or Medicaid managed care organizations to ensure individuals receive medical assistance. Together, these requirements and provisions compel and assist PMHNPs and IMDs to provide the right care and associated assistance relevant to their roles in mental health provision. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

The Policy Contribution to Collaborative Care

Collaboration is a critical aspect of mental healthcare, considering its complexity and the multidisciplinary medical teams involved. Arguably, a collaborative mental health system is supported by communication of various aspects of mental health evaluation and therapeutic intervention. The Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021 supports collaborative care by compelling the IMDs/states to improve data sharing and coordination between medical teams and increase services’ availability during a crisis.  Improving data sharing and coordination will enhance the coordination between care teams and institutions to ease response to patient issues, aid definitive medical response, and aid referrals and transfer of a patient from one IDM institution to another. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Furthermore, by increasing the availability of services during crises through mobile units and call centers, IMDs would enhance their cooperation with relevant individuals and entities, including law enforcement personnel, first responders, integrated care settings, and observation/assessment centers. This cooperation will increase healthcare personnel’s adherence to patient treatment plans, reduce risks, associated crises, needless inpatient stays, and emergency room visits. As a result, patients will have increased access to mental healthcare services and appropriate diagnosis and treatment interventions. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

While there are significant positive impacts from collaborative care for both patients and service providers, there is a potential for the state plan to penalize collaborative work. For instance, most IDMs would instead offer both physical and mental health services rather than referring the patients and outsourcing personnel to handle co-morbid physical health conditions. While such a situation can be rare, it is a possibility. Rugkasa et al. (2020) argue that policies aiming for prosperous and justifiable healthcare collaboration cannot be realized without altering the funding sources. In this regard, additional measures must be undertaken to mitigate against the possible impediment of collaborative care. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

Conclusion

In sum, the Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021 is a crucial step towards universal healthcare access and affordability. The Act repeals the Social Security Act’s provisions that limited individuals below 65 years receiving care from IMDs from Medicaid payment services. Together with additional provisions, the Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2021 will aid the PMHNP roles and improve the quality of healthcare services received by mental health patients. (Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example)

References

Rugkåsa, J., Tveit, O. G., Berteig, J., Hussain, A., & Ruud, T. (2020). Collaborative care for mental health: a qualitative study of the experiences of patients and health professionals. BMC health services research, 20(1), 1-10.(Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05691-8

Carlson, C., Sweetland, A., & Wainberg, M. (2018). Ethical challenges in global mental health clinical trials. The Lancet. Psychiatry, 5(11), 866. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2FS2215-0366(18)30300-6

Mitchell, A.(July 2019). Medicaid’s Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) Exclusion.(Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example) Retrieved 26 October 2021, from https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/IF10222.pdf 

American Association of Nurse Practitioners. (December 2019). Are You Considering a Career as Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner? Retrieved 26 October 2021, from https://www.aanp.org/news-feed/are-you-considering-a-career-as-psychiatric-mental-health-nurse-practitioner

Sainato, M. (January 2020). The Americans are dying because they can’t afford medical care.(Comprehensive Mental Health Policy Nursing Paper Example) Retrieved 26 October 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-healthcare-medical-costs

The Congres.gov. (April 2021). 117th CONGRESS 1st Session: H. R. 2611. Retrieved 26 October 2021, from https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr2611/BILLS-117hr2611ih.xml