Mental Health is just as Important as Physical Health
It’s not often that the we hear about the importance of mental health. Recently The Journal Times showcased a new Human Services Director of Racine County, Hope Otto. With her new position Otto will be focusing on mental health and workforce development.
Here at RGH we talk often about the importance of health and how that health is a right for all human beings, not a privilege for those that can afford it. This right should not be limited by physical wellness, but extend through the whole body and include mental health as well.
Prevention and treatment are part of mental health services, which need to be provided at all times, not just in times of crises like church or school shootings, additions, or teen suicides. These services are not provided or are misunderstood in most cases because there is a lot of stigma about mental health and disease, particularly, affecting chronic patients suffering from mental illness. Mental health services are limited to only 30 days of care which will allow them to be admitted to a hospital or care facility. This fixed number of days for treatment leads to readmission to these hospitals and even when continuous care is needed because care beyond 30 days is not usually covered by insurances like Medicaid in these cases.
Also untreated mental illness leads to homelessness and more stigma surrounding mental illness. Currently depression is the leading seller amongst pharmaceutical companies since their leading sellers are anti-depressant medications. There is a great need to ensure access to depression prevention services and that the citizens who are on or in need of these medications, get them and they are using them properly.
We need to have mental health programs and standards of mental health services in every country and people must know where they can go for mental health services. It’s Dr.Elvira Beracochea’s dream to have mental health services provided in every clinic in the United States, to have patients be treated when it is needed, and have access to a support network available to those patients.
What would RGH do if it was consulting on a project like this?
RGH would be able to do an assessment of what programs and policies are currently successful in each State. There are many resources that are currently uncoordinated. For instance, Social Services and other agencies that oversee portions of mental health for their citizens are currently not coordinated. Having a new director in place willing to make these changes and integrate these departments to coordinate and speak to one another would allow for great progress with already existing programs and better access to resources and education. RGH would also help implement these programs more efficiently and to report in real time the number of patients under treatment, those that have recovered. Our citizens must be able to recognize early signs of mental disease and take appropriate action.
WWRGHD? is a new blog series from RGH where we look at events in the news and share our take on what could be done, or done differently, to improve universal coverage to healthcare in the United States and around the world.
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