Mental Healthcare Access by Youth Operational Plan

Mental Healthcare Access by Youth Operational PlanNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
Mental Healthcare Access by Youth
Mental disorders is one of the greatest challenges that are affecting the young people in different parts of the world. Mental disorders have short term and long term effects on the lives of the youth and yet if they are identified early, and the necessary interventions are made, then they can lead to the recovery of the affected. However, there is the rise of social stigma among the young people, and mental health care is always difficult to access in the various facilities. The lack of the young people to access the healthcare facilities has led most of them to end up in the juvenile criminal justice system. Studies that were carried out on the incarcerated youths showed that up to 70% of them were suffering from various mental disorders CITATION Hea15 \l 1033 (Health Service Executive, 2015). Research also shows that 60%-90% of the adolescent youths fail to seek treatment for their disorders CITATION WHO \l 1033 (WHO). We need to come up with the necessary social, legal and medical interventions that should be implemented to make sure that the young people who are suffering from the mental disorders do not end up in the justice system due to the lack of access to mental healthcare and other related services.
Barriers to Mental Healthcare Access by the Youth
An identification of the barriers associated with lack of access by the youth to mental health care will make us come up with long-lasting solutions to the problem. Some factors have made it difficult for the youth to gain access to mental health care services. However, the main problem is the social stigma that makes the adolescents not to seek mental treatment. The other factors include;
1 Failure of the parents, school officials and the medical providers to identify mental disorders at an early age and begin the treatment process. Some of them ignore the problem and assume that it will heal soon, but later it develops into a bigger problem. Such missed opportunities make most of the youth to end up in criminal justice system.
2 Poor coordination of services among the schools, the primary health care providers, and the other social services system. There is poor communication between the parties involved. Once a young person visits the healthcare facility, there is no follow up that is done by the parents of the victim and the facility does not follow up on the condition of the victim.
3 Lack of health insurance or the restrictions that are put by the insurers on the coverages for particular services only. According to research, 10% of the adolescents lacked insurance, and when they are covered, the amount of the mental health services that they can be able to receive is limited. The identification of a mental health disorder was also found to be challenging.
4 Shortage of skilled personnel who can provide proper healthcare services in the field of mental health care.
Purpose of Operational Plan
As identified in the above statistics, the problem is still bigger, and it is necessary that we come up with the interventions required to solve it. Otherwise, the young people will end up losing their lives or wasting their life in prison ...