This week, we reviewed one of the biggest benefits to E-mental health that I discussed in a previous post. This advantage is providing ease of access to treatment for patients. With conventional treatment for mental health disorders we see many barriers that prevent patients from getting proper care. I will discuss these barriers further and the impact that lack of treatment for patients with these illnesses and how it can lead to even greater issues in their lives.
As we have discussed, we can see that mental health disorders are very common within our population. Specifically, 1 in 5 adults in the US are affected by a mental health issue of some sort. With the number of people being diagnosed with mental health disorders are rapidly increasing, it is vital that these patients receive the help that they need to treat these disorders. However, we have seen that there are many barriers that prevent patients from seeking treatment. For example, according to NAMI, almost 60% of adults with a mental illness did not seek treatment last year. This can be for many reasons. Some of the main reasons that patients do not seek medical services to treat their illness are that they could not afford the cost of treatment, they did not know where services were provided, and that they did not have time. With these barriers preventing patients from seeking quality treatment that they might desperately need, we see that they are at a higher risk of suicide, criminal actions, substance abuse, and employment issues. NAMI has reported that 90% of those who committed suicide had an untreated mental illness. Their studies have also shown that 24% of state prisoners had a recent history of a mental health disorder. As we can see, it is very important that patients diagnosed with mental illness get the care that they need to avoid further issues like these. Luckily, with the development of E-mental health these barriers will be eliminated and patients can adopt these therapies to receive the care that they really need.
http://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/GeneralMHFacts.pdf
I find the topic of mental health care in jails and prisons to be a very interesting one. As the book proposed, e-mental health could be a way to provide mental health services to those who are imprisoned without having the providers safety feel threatened. The use of technology for visitors in jails have increased significantly. Someone close to me was recently in jail and visits were done via a videoconferencing. In addition to this, he was able to text message certain people once a day. While all of this makes since because it reduce a vasts amount of risks such as visitor safety and smuggling of contraband, part of me wonders what is the cost of all this? With jails and prisons being such isolating places, I wonder how significant the physical, human interaction may be to these patients?
ReplyDeleteMajority of prisoners list someone to talk to as part of their mental health needs. Here is an interesting article I found about mental health in prisons:http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/249200/Prisons-and-Health,-11-Mental-health-in-prison.pdf?ua=1
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