The Importance Of Encouraging Mental Health Services: A Review Of ReachOut And Being Organizations Essay.

• Examine a social need in any one of the following sectors in Australia
• Mental health
• Domestic Violence
• Child Safety
• The essay should include:

• A clear articulation of the social need, the group in focus with the need and a discussion of the relevant socio-economic determinants
• Analysis of relevant historical and current responses/ policies/industrial developments in the Australian context
• Recommendations (any two)
• A clear articulation of the social need, the group in focus with the need and a discussion of the relevant socio-economic determinants
  • For example, the social need can be emergency housing for DV survivors and the group in focus can be women in regional Queensland. Relevant social-economic determinants could include education levels, access to services and so on

• Analysis of relevant historical and current responses/ policies/industrial developments in the Australian context
• Continuing from the above example, more than 66,000 incidents were reported to Queensland police In 2013–14. Awareness about the incidents led to the establishment of a Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland. Subsequent developments included the QLD premier commissioning a report (delivered as ‘Not now, Not Ever report in 2015) a number of amendments made to the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 in 2017(you would need to examine this in more detail)
• Recommendations (any two)
• Continuing from the above example, two potential recommendations could be to increase awareness and deliver education programs about respectful relationships at a school level and trialling mobile support services in regional and remote locations (you would need to present these in more detail)
• Title page
• Introduction (included in the word count)
• Body (using the three sub-headings as per the marking rubric)
• Conclusion (included in the word count)
• References
• Appendices (if any)

Overview of ReachOut and Being

The reason it is essential to encourage the spread of mental health service is due to the increasing number of people who have a mental disorder. Mental health has a significant impact on the educational outcome, productivity at work, development of a positive personal relationship, crime rate and alcohol and drug abus (Wright, Masten & Narayan, 2013). Reachout.com and Being are two Australia based organisation that provide services on mental health. Both the organisations work to help people suffering from mental illness such as depression, anxiety, stress and many other related illnesses. ReachOut is one of the leading online mental health organisation in Australia specifically for young people and their parents. The organisation provides practical support, tools and tips that help young people overcome anything that might be making time tough for them. BEING is an organisation help people with a lived experience of mental illness. It maintains its consumers to achieve and support systematic change.

BEING is the independent, reputable organisation in Australia for people who are faced with mental challenges. The organisation work with consumers to help them achieve systemic change as well as support the systemic change. Bridging between the mental health consumer and government is the function of the organisation. The organisation does not provide personal advice, the role of the organisation is to advise the state government. The organisation influence the decision which has the potential to impact on the experience one goes through while using mental health service. Gathering information through their interactive website, a consumer group, committees, forum and research about consumer’s expertise regarding the mental health treatment help the organisation find out the changes or improvements that the consumers would like to expect from government (BEING, 2016).

ReachOut is one of the online mental health organisation in Australia specifically for young people and their parents. The organisation helps in anything that is acting as an issue for young people and having a mental impact with the tips, tools and support. Since most of the young people seek help or suggestion online, the organisation aim to be there when young people find help online. The organisation strive to deliver innovative e-mental health service and assists the young people to take control of their mental health and wellbeing (Reachout.com, 2018).

The vision of BEING involves the participation of all people with lived experience of mental illness as a valued citizen in any communities that they choose. BEING work with consumers to achieve and support systemic changes involving the state. In the following capacities mentioned below  BEING works:

Policy: The organisation represents consumers by engaging in consultation and participation in regional areas as well as forums across NSW. To BEING’s work, the collaborative and responsive policy is the main idea, and it takes generalised advocacy. It organisation provides advice and expertise through the representation and participation of various committees.

Training: The organisation provides training and workshops for service providers, consumers, and workplace and policymaker explicitly focusing on consumer participation. It also aims to develop innovative ways to make the consumers deal with the problem in a more appropriate way.

BEING's Mission and Functioning

Consultation and representation: the organisation raises awareness through substantial online presence. It engages in observation and participation at the various conference, events, seminars and other gatherings that are helpful in finding information.

Research: the organisation profoundly believes in proper and in-depth researches based on which it recommends and advise the state about the changes and alteration that are expected by the consumers.

The ReachOut.com is an organisation that can be reached if one is seeking mental health assistance. The organisation helps to find the best possible option that a person wants including a GP, mental health professionals, access support group or any other relevant option. There are several support system available that are considered highly effective treatments. The organisation offers forums that let people connect with other people who are dealing with depression, anxiety or suicidal intention. Young people in these days are more prone to depression and stress (Deb, Strodl & Sun, 2015).  Young people and their parents can get help from the forums, information and emergency helplines. The organisation has been changing ways people access help since its inception from last 20 years.

Analysing the two organisation, it is found that both the organisation have the same goal that is to address mental health as the priority and eliminate the chances of causing such mental health issues as much as possible. However, the two organisations are different than one another. According to Belk (2014), people are often understood looking at the things they browse on internet. Based on this information, the organization BEING is on an appropriate path of achieving its goal. BEING is an organisation that acts to collect as much information as possible to find innovative ideas to help consumers who seek mental health assistance. According to Beronio, Glied and  Frank  (2014) the information is obtained that it is more efficient and easy to rely on the people who are experienced and have overcome similar situations. ReachOut is an organisation that assists in connecting the people who have been through the treatment or people who are educated on a similar aspect. The strengths of BEING is that it has the power to interact with the state. The mental health is a regional priority, and therefore the organisation can act to a great extent for it has the potential to communicate directly with the government and provide them with innovative ideas. However, the risk factor involved in the BEING organisation is that it highly relies on research, therefore, any minor error in the research process might lead to a bigger problem.

Identification of strengths and risk factors

As per the The ReachOut organization strategic plan, it offers an open platform to connect with people who are helpful. It is observed in past studies that it is an useful method of overcoming depression and other mental health problems (Boh, & Wong, 2013). It is a way one can get motivation and knowledge about the right place to seek help or emergency help. The risk factor that is associated with the organisation’s system is that the platform might not act positively since the intake of perception varies person to person. It is highly recommendable to supervise the interaction as the younger people might get misguided.

In future, due to increased technology and growing competition, society expect more and more people with mental health problems, therefore, it is essential to make the concept of mental health care generalized (Stoddart & Evans, 2017). It is interesting to find that organisations are not only providing services to the people who seek mental help assistance but also brainstorming other ways to help to eliminate the problem and help people to overcome the issue.

Conclusion:

At the end of the paper, the information gathered is health is essential for the country that wants to develop. The reason it is significant to inspire the spread of mental health service is due to the growing number of people who have a mental disorder. The two organisations that have been mentioned work in the mental health sectors. One organisation, ReachOut works to provide every possible information that is needed for someone who is seeking mental health assistance. Another organisation, BEING works to communicate with the government and provide them with ways to improve, bring changes and alteration that are needed as per the changes in the mental health sector.

References:

Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of business research, 67(8), 1595-1600.

Beronio, K., Glied, S., & Frank, R. (2014). How the Affordable Care Act and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act greatly expand coverage of behavioral health care. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 41(4), 410-428.

Boh, W. F., & Wong, S. S. (2013). Organizational climate and perceived manager effectiveness: Influencing perceived usefulness of knowledge sharing mechanisms.

Deb, S., Strodl, E., & Sun, J. (2015). Academic stress, parental pressure, anxiety and mental health among Indian high school students. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 5(1), 26-34.

Reachout.com, (2018), Why wait until a young person is in crisis? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://about.au.reachout.com/

Stoddart, G. L., & Evans, R. G. (2017). Producing health, consuming health care. In Why are some people healthy and others not? (pp. 27-64). Routledge.

Wright, M. O. D., Masten, A. S., & Narayan, A. J. (2013). Resilience processes in development: Four waves of research on positive adaptation in the context of adversity. In Handbook of resilience in children (pp. 15-37). Springer, Boston, MA.