The Mental Treatment Packages and Health Reforms in America - Research Paper Example

? Do Mental Health Services serve the interests of the or the rest of society in the treatment packages that they offer? [Professor’s name] [Date] While dealing with a mentally challenged person certain ethical considerations have to be kept in mind. The psychiatrist should not be forget that the mentally ill person and should respect him at any cost. Similar care needs to be taken for their treatment in order to heal them. Full information related to treatment and expenses needs to be given to the client. Mental counselors consider the background of the client while advising him on a treatment package so that the treatment becomes affordable. Inclusion of the bartering system involving gifts in treatment packages are generally avoided by the consumer (Code of Ethics, 2000). Current treatment packages have been tailored according to the client’s needs. Treatment packages are directed towards early prevention as well as after care. But criticisms have come up against these treatment packages due to their adherence of strict duration irrespective of the patients needs. Some packages based on group treatments have been neglected individual care (Prinz, n.d). Payments under mental health services are also a complex issue as it is treated more categorically different than other health diseases under Medicare. Related medicines have also become more expensive (A Guide to Mental Wellness in Older Age: Recognizing and Overcoming Depression, n.d). Hence recent treatment packages have benefitted the patients to some extents but also have proved to be costly. The current essay tends to address this issue through various cases and findings. Behavioral factors have always influenced health treatments and it is relatively more important for patients suffering from mental disorders. This factor is also clinically influential on the health conditions of the mental patients (American Psychiatry Association, 2000, p.732). Hence a proper behavior is essential while dealing with the mental patients. This falls under the ethical considerations of psychological treatment. Ethical Considerations The mental doctors or counselors should never hurt the patients by their behavior. No physical or mental torture will be tolerated by the client. Maintenance of trust during the treatment also falls under ethics. The client also needs to be fully aware of the nature of the treatment and its underlying expenses. Any kind of discriminations, be it gender or racial needs to be kept outside the purview of treatment. Engagement in close personal relationships during the course of treatment is considered to be harmful for the patients. Financial or business relationships should not be developed. It is important that mental patients continue with their treatments else it would prove detrimental. It is the doctor’s responsibility that mental patients come for their treatments regularly and consume the prescribed medicines (Code of Ethics, 2000). Treatment packages offered for mental patients Before suggesting any treatment for mental illness the doctors need to diagnose correctly the kind of mental disorder the patient is suffering from. This will certainly help the suggested treatment package to cater to the needs of the patients. The cause for such disorder is also equally important. Medical advance in the area of psychiatric treatment do help to serve these purposes. Mental illness treatment is considered to be either somatic or psychotherapeutic. Somatic disorders are to some extent curable with drugs. So psychiatrists often suggest drug therapy. These drugs consist of newly invented anti depressants. Medical prescriptions are prepared in accordance with the type of disorder. Electroconvulsive therapy is a part of psychotherapeutic method of treatment. Under such therapy electric shocks are given to the patients by attaching the electrodes to the patient’s head. Undoubtedly the treatment is a painful one but proved to be very effective for severe depressions that are less responsive to drugs (Doebbeling, 2007). The new therapy which has been discovered is concerned with treatment through conversations. A supportive kind of relation is established with the patient as part of the treatment so that the mentally challenged person can express himself. The doctor can accordingly help the patient regain his normal consciousness. Other therapies involved are Cognitive therapy focusing on the cause of the disorder and behavioral therapy based on healing the patient’s abnormal behavior (Doebbeling, 2007). Treatment packages depend a lot on the case history of patients. Experience and probability of success should also be looked upon while offering treatment packages. The client needs to be careful to accept such treatment packages mainly from places having sufficient clinical skills. Arrangement of funds and reimbursement has been the primary area of concern while going for mental treatment packages (Ries, n.d, p.20). Although a large number of Americans possess health plans, it is of little when it comes to mental treatment. This is because mental cases gets a completely different treatment under this health plans. For psychiatric treatment the limit is 190 days for hospitalization expenses. Reimbursement is not possible beyond that limit. It also pays for half of Outpatient services’ expenses (A Guide to Mental Wellness in Older Age: Recognizing and Overcoming Depression, n.d). The cost incurred in treatment packages involving mental disorder is huge and is gradually increasing with time. The mental patients are mostly from poor background who cannot afford such costly treatments. However overtime there have been investments in mental illness. Development stakeholders mainly came forward for making such investments. Various health policies have been targeted towards groups prone to mental disorders. Such efforts include International Health Partnerships, Global Health Workforce Alliance and Health Metrics Network (Funk, 2010). Literature Review A research study undertaken by the team of University Health Network Women’s Health Program has shown that public interventions and policies have not yet been able to suggest or find out an effective treatment package that has cured mental disorders like postpartum depression. Such a depression generally affecting pregnant women which have affected 13% of women have been lacking treatment packages such as home visiting or counseling. Massage therapy has also not yielded any significant result. Although early detection of such disorders is possible it has still not widely been practiced. Under -treatment has been the key of such mental illnesses (Stewart, Robertson, Dennis, Grace and Wallington, 2003). A review process was undertaken to study the present benefits and problems associated with treatment packages offered to mental patients with a particular kind of mental disorder. The patients were personally interviewed on their experience during the course of treatment. It was found for most of the cases the nature of treatment and the underlying therapies were not disclosed properly to the patients although full information to clients has been prioritized under ethical considerations. However under this new sort of treatment packages certain effective and new medicines were prescribed to patients who proved beneficial to them in the course of treatment (Bhugra, 2010). A sample survey of 1319 members of American Psychological Association was performed to discuss whether they had to violate any ethical considerations under new treatment packages offered to mental patients. Among 679 respondents 139 answered that they were not subjected to any violation of ethics under treatment packages offered to mental patients. However responses also indicated troubles faced with ethical considerations and hence violations in areas like confidentiality, conflictual relationships, payment packages, sexual issues and others (Pope and Vetter, n.d). A study of the mental patients once serving in armies are known to suffer from a kind of mental disorder which is known as post trauma mental disease. Research studies performed show that that the mentally ill persons had not been received proper treatment from the treatment packages offered. This has mainly been due to failure of early diagnosis. There needs to be more care and facilities in the NHS. It is not understood whether mental problems of armies are very much distinct from common man but there certainly needs to be more care for them in order to meet their mental needs (Fossey, 2010). A research was conducted to check the effectiveness of establishment of MHS by ADF in 2002. The research was conducted across both the ADF members and other civilians. It was found that the mental treatment packages offered to these people were not yielding significant outcomes and hence not considered to be suitable for them although the health promotion programs were actively conducted by staff members. Lack of well trained and efficient staffs for treatment packages was considered as the main problem (Dunt, 2009). Pros and cons associated with treatment packages Health reforms in America have led to advancement in medical care and this reflected in treatment packages for mental patients. They are directed towards care and improvisation in treatment practices. Here will also be more opportunities from practicing psychiatrists and those willing to practice in this field. But the cost involved for such a care under the treatment packages is a matter of concern (Sharfstein, 2011). The new laws enforced have made mental treatment packages somewhat beneficial by ordering insurance companies to prevent discrimination of mental disease than other diseases. Thus mental patients have been benefitted in health plans under the treatment packages in areas of annual limits and visit limits (State Laws Mandating or Regulating Mental Health Benefits, 2011). Some health insurance programmes especially directed children have helped the treatment packages provide better medical care for mentally ill children. However they have not been sufficient enough to cover the total costs involved in these treatment packages (Parisi and Bruno, 2010). Conclusion The mental treatment packages were facilitated by the recent health reforms in America. Such treatment packages have developed advanced medical care with invention of more effective new drugs and provide better treatment through early diagnosis. They contain both somatic and psychotherapeutic treatment methods consisting of various kinds of therapies. The treatment packages have been tailored to meet the exact needs of mentally ill patients. They also aim to provide better care to the mental patients and abide by the ethical considerations. However the packages have mostly been very costly and are less affordable for poor people who are more vulnerable to such mental problems. In some cases they have also violated ethical considerations which are very wrong. There are still problems in the area of reimbursements although modifications of less discrimination have already been made in the health insurance norms. Hence one may suggest the establishment of more economical treatment packages that could benefit almost every mental patient and spread welfare overall. 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(n.d), Behavioral Health Reference Handbooks. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Retrieved on December 17 2011 from: http://www.anthc.org/chs/behavioral/upload/BEHAVIORALHEALTHREFERRENCEHANDBOOK-11-04.pdf Ries, R. (n.d), Assessment and Treatment of Patients with Coexisting Mental Illness and Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, Rockville: US Department of Health and Human Services Stewart, DE, Robertson, E, Dennis, CL, Grace, SL and Wallington, T. (2003). Postpartum depression: Literature Review of Risk Factors and Interventions, University Health Network Women’s Health Program. Retrieved on December 17 2011 from : http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/lit_review_postpartum_depression.pdf Sharfstein, SS, (2010). Letter from America: how will health reform affect psychiatric care? Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 16, pp.398-401 State Laws Mandating or Regulating Mental Health Benefits, (2011), National Conference of State Legislatures. 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