Inadequacies in Mental Health Care Facilities and the Strategies to Address the Issue

Inadequacies in Mental Health Care Facilities in the United States
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June 12, 2021
Understanding the relationship between a pertinent healthcare issue and the underlying societal circumstances around it is essential for any healthcare professional. It allows him to appreciate better how it affects his organization and helps address these difficulties as a healthcare leader in his own field. In this article, the author would like to focus on the pertinent social issue of lack of quality access in mental healthcare in the United States, especially in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Notably, this includes an analysis of some of the studies done on the same previously. All in all, it is the author’s belief that by looking at the relationships between these pertinent healthcare issues and the responsibility of a healthcare leader, it becomes possible to address them at both the professional and the organizational level.
Lack of Access to Quality Mental Healthcare and the Pandemic
Studies show that around 1 out of 5 Americans have diagnosable mental illnesses CITATION Men21 \l 1033 (Mental Health America, 2021). This translates to 25% of the overall American population, or around 83 million Americans, with some mental illness. Nonetheless, one of the most persistent and severe illnesses that most Americans experience is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which usually afflicts war veterans, police officers, and other kinds of “high-risk” professions, among others.
Despite this persistent need for adequate and quality healthcare, studies show that millions of Americans still have insufficient or low-quality access to healthcare CITATION Men21 \l 1033 (Mental Health America, 2021). Coupled with the existence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the effects of these stressors have become more pronounced than ever.
Pertinent Studies
The lack of sufficient and high-quality access to healthcare is highly felt for veterans that are suffering from PTSD. In one article written by Hester (2017), the author noted that this lack of quality access to mental healthcare is one of the contributing factors to the ever-increasing suicide rates among veterans. For example, one of the results of his study has shown that women war veterans have a suicide rate of around 35 per 100,000 individuals, which is significantly higher compared to that of civilian counterparts.
Upon analysis of these causes, the study found out that these stressors arise not primarily from low numbers of mental healthcare providers but from the low access to high-quality and timely intervention. On the one hand, this stems from the lack of “early-access crisis-intervention services,” which is essential for soldiers to re-integrate with the general society. In turn, this increases both the risks and the severity of mental illnesses that could be inflicted upon war veterans. On the other hand, this healthcare issue also stems from the fact that there is limited support for continuous mental health intervention from third-party providers when a veteran retires from the service. In other words, the post-employment support for war veterans is minimal compared to the amount of treatment needed f...