Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal Essay

Healthcare professionals are on the frontline in proposing policies and interventions to promote health in vulnerable populations. Due to the exposure to trauma, especially from life-threatening experiences, youths and young adults aged 18-24 are among the most vulnerable populations affected by various mental health issues, mostly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is prevalent in young people since 1-82.5% of the youths have experienced a traumatic event, and up to 8.1% experience PTSD (Lewis et al., 2019).  Due to the likelihood of experiencing interpersonal violence following hormonal and brain changes, youths with PTSD are vulnerable to self-injury, thus a serious issue of concern. More so, as mentioned in the previous assessment, PTSD is a mental health issue that faces a shortage of healthcare professionals who are well versed in trauma and trauma management. Policies and guidelines ensuring that youths access the required mental health care should be developed. This essay proposes a policy that will address mental health promotion by targeting the population of teens and young adults aged 18-24.

The Proposed Policy and Guidelines

The proposed policy is the Teens and young adults’ mental health and wellness policy. The policy will have several provisions to address the youth mental health crisis, from accessibility and quality of mental health care. The first provision is availing mental health awareness clinics and making them accessible for youths in terms of cost-effectiveness and care quality. The mental health departments in healthcare institutions will prioritize youths, thus encouraging them to seek help, therefore promoting positive outcomes. The second provision is providing affordable and accessible mental health services for youths. The third provision entails creating community programs where the youths can share their past traumatic experiences with trusted people, thus reducing mental health issues. The community programs will have counselors who are accessible 24/7.

Since the youths frequently use technology, online mental health campaigns will be launched, steered by the community programs to create awareness of PTSD, reduce intrapersonal and interpersonal stigma, and encourage the youths to seek mental health when they experience mental health symptoms. The guidelines necessary for improving outcomes of the quality of care for youths who have PTSD involve the use of recommended guidelines in treating youths and children with PTSD. According to Watkins, Sprang, and Rothbaum (2018), the American Psychological Association recommended the use of prolonged exposure (PE), trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and cognitive processing therapy (CPT). These evidence-based psychotherapy interventions will improve the health outcomes of youths with PTSD. However, there might be a challenge in improving mental health care access for the youths due to the shortage of healthcare professionals trained to deal with PTSD. The issue can be addressed by training more healthcare professionals on mental health illnesses.

The need for the policy

Research shows that teens and young adults with PTSD are reluctant to seek mental health treatment. Just as the PTSD patients from other populations, youths fail to seek mental health treatment due to fear of stigmatization, disclosure, and isolation. According to Velasco et al. (2020), other barriers to seeking mental health treatment include negative beliefs about mental health services and professionals and mental health illiteracy. Therefore, there is a need to improve the quality of mental health care to encourage the youth population to seek mental health treatment. The proposed policy has provisions that will encourage more teens and young adults to seek mental health help by creating awareness of PTSD and ensuring they easily access mental health treatment. Even though psychoeducation mainly focuses on school systems, the community programs will help trace youths with PTSD, especially those outside the school system who have refused to seek help and encourage them to seek help.

Furthermore, the community program interventions and multimedia campaigns will present a platform where youths can share experiences and create awareness about PTSD, thus helping them to overcome the consequences of PTSD. However, a systematic review by Smith, Yaya and Workneh (2019), in contradiction, reveals that the facilitators of help-seeking behavior would be in vain if the healthcare system doesn’t foster a caring and empathetic workforce for mental health departments, especially when caring for teens and young adults. They assert that follow-ups and screening services should be included in the mental health continuum to promote care quality and help-seeking behaviors among youths with PTSD.

Interprofessional Approach Potential to Enhance Effectiveness and Efficiency

All healthcare professionals have a role to play in improving health outcomes in all populations. Similarly, the policy’s implementation will require the collaboration of psychiatric physicians, psychiatric nurses, counselors, therapists, and social workers, among other healthcare professionals. Interprofessional collaboration, training, shared decision-making, and shared goals and values, are some of the essential best practices necessary for implementing this policy. Shared goals, values, and decision-making all build on professional collaboration critical to the success of the interventions (Riskiyana et al., 2018). Shared decision-making and communication will ensure the involvement of all healthcare professionals involved. Hence, working towards the same goal and ensuring a holistic approach towards youths’ access to care and treatment of PTSD.

Essentially, the proposed policy enhances the efficiency of the interventions when each professional plays their role in improving the health outcomes of youths with PTSD since the team’s combination can be found in any healthcare facility. Besides, social workers can trace youths with PTSD who have failed to seek help in the community and refer them to community programs and mental health institutions. Therefore, the healthcare setting will achieve high-quality outcomes for youths with PTSD. PTSD is experienced by everyone differently, and the steps taken to seek help are distinct. The policy proposed does not cover individualizing PTSD care and treatment options. Further information on individualized patient-centered care for PTSD would improve the policy interventions.

Conclusion

Youths aged 18-24 with PTSD are at a risk that often goes unmentioned, especially since most of them do not seek help adequately. However, they can be helped to overcome PTSD and other mental disorders and take care of their mental health. With the help of the relevant authorities, the policy and guidelines proposed will adequately address the youths’ PTSD crisis.

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References

Riskiyana, R., Claramita, M., & Rahayu, G. R. (2018). Objectively measured interprofessional education outcome and factors that enhance program effectiveness: A systematic review. Nurse Education Today, 66, 73-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.04.014

Smith, J. R., Yaya, S., & Workneh, A. (2019). Barriers and Facilitators to Help-Seeking for Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review. Journal of Traumatic Stress. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22456

Watkins, L. E., Sprang, K. R., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2018). Treating PTSD: A Review of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Interventions. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 258. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00258

Lewis, S. J., Arseneault, L., Caspi, A., Fisher, H. L., Matthews, T., Moffitt, T. E., … & Danese, A. (2019). The epidemiology of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder in a representative cohort of young people in England and Wales. The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(3), 247-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30031-8

Velasco, A., Cruz, I. S. S., Billings, J., Jimenez, M., & Rowe, S. (2020). What are the barriers, facilitators, and interventions targeting help-seeking behaviors for common mental health problems in adolescents? A systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 20(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02659-0

 

Guiding Questions

Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal assessment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assessment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assessment. Do not turn in this document as your assessment submission.

Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.

• Does your policy encompass the key components that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for your chosen issue and target population?
  • Is your policy succinct (about one paragraph)?
• Do your proposed guidelines help colleagues, stakeholders, and groups understand how to implement your proposed policy?
• Are your policy and guidelines realistic in the context of the team, unit, or organization you are considering?
• Are your policy and guidelines realistic in the context of the environmental factors that exist?

Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.

• What is the current state of relevant outcomes related to your policy?
• What is the current state of the quality of care related to your policy
• Why is it important to work toward improvements in outcomes and quality of care?
• How will your policy help ensure that improvements are achieved?

Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes.

• What are the relevant interprofessional best practices for successfully implementing your policy?
  • How will they support an increase in efficiency for achieving high-quality outcomes relevant to your policy, chosen issue, or target population?
  • How will they support an increase in effectiveness for achieving high-quality outcomes relevant to your policy, chosen issue, or target population?

Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

• Is your writing clear and professional?
• Is your writing free from errors?
• Is your writing persuasive?
• Is your submission 2–4 pages (not including the title page and reference list)?

Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.

• Did you use 3–5 sources in your assessment?
  • Are the sources you used no more than five years old?
• Are your sources cited in APA format throughout?
• Have you included an attached reference list?
• Did you use the APA Style Paper Template for formatting to include running head and title page?
  • No abstract is needed for this assessment.