Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
Barriers to Access to Mental Health Services
Anne L. Bateman, EdD, PMHAPRN, BC, Graduate School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Worcester, Worcester, MA, USA
| Learning Objective #1: - identify two factors that influence access to mental health services.
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| Learning Objective #2: - describe two barriers that barriers to referral to mental health services. |
The crisis in American health care has been a key topic of discussion since the Presidential election of 1992 when Hilary Clinton, now New York U.S Senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton, took on the issue as part of the campaign. Although her efforts to develop a plan of universal health care for all were a political disaster, the issue of soaring costs and provider retrenchment has remained, and access to health care services has deteriorated. Managed care has loomed as a dominant force in the utilization of all types of health care services, determining who goes where and when. As a result of diminished resources and an increasing number of individuals and families who are under insured or uninsured, health care services are not pursued unless the situation becomes acute. The emergency psychiatric service often functions as the entry point into the larger system of mental health care delivery and similar to the general emergency department, often serves as the primary care provider. With this critical role in the health care system, the emergency psychiatric service can provide important information about access to the larger system. The data about client need and resource availability gathered through research into this area could advance knowledge about both user and service need. This study looked at the factors that influence the process of referral follow-up services for individuals in crisis and the barriers to accessing those services. A conceptual framework was developed from the constructs contained critical social thinking. A problem statement and method of inquiry was derived from each theoretical perspective.
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