How to Improve Access to Mental Health Care

Treatment for mental health disorders is an issue that cuts across all races, genders, ages, lifestyles and populations. Millions of people experience depression and other mental health disorders on an annual basis, but sometimes access to mental health care is limited or difficult. To make the switch to easier access for all to mental health care, it is up to legislators and health-care providers and administrators to change the way things are done.

Instructions

Increasing Access to Mental Health Care

• 1

  Create collaborative care treatment settings that include integration of primary care physicians and mental health providers working together for patients. A research study by Mirjam van Orden and four other researchers published in the January 2009 issue of Psychiatric Services compared the use of collaborative care treatment models with traditional, off-site referral models. The collaborative care model was used by having mental health professionals working on-site at primary-care practices. In contrast, the traditional, off-site model consists of a primary care physician referring a patient to mental health care professional at an off-site, separate office.

  Results of this study showed that the participants received their first initial mental health care visit in half the time it usually takes with a referral-process system, that costs were lowered and participants symptoms improved in a shorter time span.

• 2

  Add managed behavioral health care to Medicare that would allow seniors more access to mental health care providers. It is estimated that fewer than 30 percent of older adults with a diagnosable mental health disorder seek treatment, but this type of coverage under the Medicare system has barely changed since Medicare's inception, according to a report presented at a meeting of AcademyHealth, a health research and policy consortium, in 2003. Under a managed behavioral health care system, Medicare would contract with mental health service providers that would allow seniors to see licensed professional counselors and psychologists.

• 3

  Develop community-based systems of care that are devoted to the mental health care and well-being of children and families. The University of South Florida has worked with many regions across the United States to develop community-based care systems that combine health-care providers from multiple fields. Their efforts and ideas continue to improve access to high-quality health care services, especially for children with mental health needs.

• 4

  Implement specialty training programs for mental health providers that focus on care for returning veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders. Surveys conducted by the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research found that many treatment providers lack the training in evidence-based practices and are unfamiliar with combat-related disorders.

• 5

  Provide easier access to community-based treatment centers for underserved populations and minorities. Suggestions from research conducted by the University of South Florida include training and staffing bilingual providers and personnel and developing travel vouchers such as bus passes. These practical solutions will improve access to mental health care for families, children and minorities.