1.The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has identified ‘Improving access to effective care for people who have mental health and substance abuse disorder’ as one of the health and health care priorities. The main rational for this is prevalence of mental health and substance abuse disorder in American adults. 18.1% of adults living in U.S experience some form of mental disorder and the total health care expenditure on mental health and substance abuse disorder was $201 billion. Furthermore, several barriers to service delivery such as fragmented health care system and poorly distributed workforce creates challenges for people with mental health and substance abuse disorder in accessing primary and preventive care (Knickman et al., 2016). Due to this issue, improving access to health service is necessary.
2.After identification of the issue of poor accessibility to health services for people with mental health and substance abuse disorder, NAM specified several key facilitators as policy recommendations to solve the issue. The list of specific policy recommendations suggested by NAM includes the following:
- Nam recommended development of payment approaches that address cost of managing patients and
- It suggested focusing on individual therapeutic approaches and counseling for substance abuse people that has favorable effect on the lives of people.
- As poor training of staffs was also an issue, investment on diversifying technology and developing more efficient team approach was also proposed (Knickman et al., 2016).
- Modifications in health care models were also propose to develop a culture of shared accountability and promote integration of services.
3.Nurse can also address the issue of accessibility to health and health care for mental health and people with substance abuse disorder by taking part in skill development and training program that increases their skills in providing effective care to people coming from diverse cultural group. They can learns the skills to provide evidence bases care and participate in large numbers for receiving training in screening and diagnosing substance abuse disorder. Advance education and training regarding behavioral therapy and skills will help to integrate care within diverse health care team (Substance, Mental & Office of the Surgeon General, 2016). Proper infrastructure is also needed to enable nurse to provide substance abuse disorder with the same sensitivity and care as any other chronic health condition (Yesufu-Udechuku et al., 2015)
References:
Knickman, J., Krishnan, K. R. R., Pincus, H. H., Blanco, C., Blazer, D. G., Coye, M. J., ... & Vitiello, B. (2016). Improving Access to Effective Care for People Who Have Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders. Discussion Paper, Vital Directions for Health and Health Care Series. National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. https://nam. edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/improving-access-to-effective-care-for-people-who-have-mentalhealth-and-substance-use-disorders. pdf.
Substance, A., Mental, H. S. A. U., & Office of the Surgeon General (US. (2016). Facing addiction in America: The Surgeon General's report on alcohol, drugs, and health.
Yesufu-Udechuku, A., Harrison, B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Young, N., Woodhams, P., Shiers, D., ... & Kendall, T. (2015). Interventions to improve the experience of caring for people with severe mental illness: systematic review and meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(4), 268-274.
