Emerging issues in the mental health care arena that the policymakers address and those that are in need of policy advocacy are:
The struggle to find caregivers with the proper contracts for mental healthcare is a new problem in the field of mental health care (NAMI, 2017).
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) estimates that 50 percent of the 60 million adults and children in the United States who have a mental health diagnosis do not receive any treatment.
Patients frequently have to seek treatment outside of their network, which increases their out-of-pocket expenses (NAMI, 2017).
<h3>What is mental health?</h3>
Our emotional, psychological, and social well-being are all parts of our mental health. It influences our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
According to Popple & Leighninger (2019), "advocates urge a number of improvements, changes, and protections, including effective grievance and appeal procedures; coverage of a full array of treatments and interventions, including community-based services such as housing programs and vocational training; greater use of outcome measures; parity or equality of insurance benefits for those with physical and for those with mental illness; and adequate attention to the needs of those with severe and chronic mental illness".
These make up many of the emerging issues in the mental health care arena that need to be addressed to best provide assistance and treatment to those with mental illness.
A specific issue that needs policy advocacy discussed by Mental Health America is the fact that mental health conditions should be treated long before a crisis occurs and they gave the example that people do not wait years to treat things like cancer or diabetes, so why should mental health be any different?
Early identification could help alleviate the vast amount of crises people with mental health conditions face.
Another policy that needs to be addressed for advocacy for change is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). According to Daniels & Ritter (2018), there is a coverage gap associated with the ACA regulations.
In 2012, the Supreme Court made the expansion of Medicaid to widen services that was optional to each state.
With this, a lower reimbursement rate from Medicaid discourage community behavioural health services often leaving the only option of seeking care in the emergency rooms.
Because of this "patients endure long stays in the emergency departments waiting on state sponsored beds leading to uncompensated care and increased tax payer burden" (Daniels & Ritter, 2018).
