Bridging Gaps In Mental Health Care

This report describes the progress made and challenges faced by Welcome Back Veterans, an initiative that supports organizations that, in turn, provide programs and services to support veterans and their families.

Today, most substance abuse treatment is administered by community-based organizations. If providers could readily incorporate the most recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of addiction and treatment, the treatment would be much more effective and efficient. The gap between research findings and everyday treatment practice represents an enormous missed opportunity at this exciting time in this field. Informed by real-life experiences in addiction treatment including workshops and site visits, Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Research examines why research remains remote from treatment and makes specific recommendations to community providers, federal and state agencies, and other decision-makers. The book outlines concrete strategies for building and disseminating knowledge about addiction; for linking research, policy development, and everyday treatment implementation; and for helping drug treatment consumers become more informed advocates. In candid language, the committee discusses the policy barriers and the human attitudesâ€"the stigma, suspicion, and skepticismâ€"that often hinder progress in addiction treatment. The book identifies the obstacles to effective collaboration among the research, treatment, and policy sectors; evaluates models to address these barriers; and looks in detail at the issue from the perspective of the community-based provider and the researcher.

The stress that comes with being a first responder has been known to lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. However, few clinicians are informed about these health concerns and how to adequately treat them in this population. Therefore, there is an urgent need for practitioners to understand the latest information regarding treatments that will be useful to this specific population. Mental Health Intervention and Treatment of First Responders and Emergency Workers is an essential reference source that focuses on the latest research for diagnosing and treating mental health issues experienced by emergency personnel and seeks to generate awareness and inform clinicians about the unique circumstances encountered by these professionals. While highlighting topics including anxiety disorders and stress management, this book is ideally designed for clinicians, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, practitioners, medical professionals, EMTs, law enforcement, fire departments, military, academicians, researchers, policymakers, and students seeking current research on psychological therapy methods regarding first responders.

The American Psychiatric Association Foundation has produced two new resources to help faith leaders better understand mental illness and treatment, and better help individuals and families in their congregations facing mental health challenges, Mental Health: A Guide for Faith Leaders and a companion two-page Quick Reference on Mental Health for Faith Leaders. These resources are the culmination of work from the Mental Health and Faith Community Partnership, a collaboration of psychiatrists and faith leaders representing diverse faith traditions. Many people facing a mental health challenge, personally or with a family member, turn first to a faith leader. And for many receiving psychiatric care, religion and spirituality are an important part of healing. In their role as "first responders," faith leaders can help dispel misunderstandings, reduce stigma associated with mental illness and treatment, and help access to treatment for those in need. The Guide and Quick Reference provide faith leaders with the knowledge, tools and resources to support that role. The Guide includes a general overview of mental health and mental illness and information on how faith leaders can support people with mental health challenges. For example, it discusses how to create a more inclusive and welcoming community, when and how to make a referral to professional mental health services, and ways to deal with resistance to accepting mental health treatment. The one page Quick Reference Guide is included.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Groups most severely affected by COVID-19 have tended to be those marginalised before the pandemic and are now being largely ignored in developing responses to it. This two-volume set of Rapid Responses explores the urgent need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how policymakers, health and social care practitioners, patients, service users, carers and public contributors can make this happen. The second volume focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic. It explores a variety of case studies from across the global North and South and addresses the practical considerations of co-producing knowledge both now - at a distance - and in the future when the pandemic is over.

This book focuses on the critical area of delivering mental health services in rural settings. It is designed as a practical guide to the technological provision of timely, effective, evidence-based care, helpful to the novice and the experienced practitioner alike. The benefits of this approach are: Improved access to and improved quality of care Technical support for providers and administrators A means of providing missing specialty care An ability to maximize scarce resources and significant flexibility for health service delivery. The book will cover how to adjust therapeutic skills to patients’ needs, models of care and the particular technology used. It shows how rudimentary design of workflow can assist in integrating care, and highlights the importance of allowing for cultural needs (both rural geography and ethnic/race). Administrative issues are also addressed (e.g., privacy, reimbursement). The chapters are short and designed for maximum practicality, including learning objectives, cases and summaries emphasizing “what to do and how to do it.”

The first book to focus on measuring the basic processes of mental healthcare, such as access, detection, treatment appropriateness, safety and continuity of care, Improving Mental Healthcare: A Guide to Measurement-Based Quality Improvement integrates practical information about quality measures -- such as their clinical logic, validity and basis in scientific evidence -- into a highly readable guide on how to implement measures and use the results to improve quality of care. Improving Mental Healthcare examines the clinical, policy, and scientific underpinnings of process measurement, a widely used method of assessing quality of mental healthcare. It describes the use of measurement to improve quality, promote accountability, encourage evidence-based practice, and shape incentives to favor delivery of high-quality care. Divided into two sections totaling 14 chapters, the first section describes factors that led to a nationwide emphasis on improving quality of care, major approaches to quality assessment, considerations in selecting measures, as well as how to analyze and interpret measure results. The second section summarizes information on more than 300 quality measures, including their clinical rationale, specifications, sources of data, supporting evidence, readiness for use, and -- where available -- data on reliability, validity, results, case-mix adjustment, standards, and benchmarks. Improving Mental Healthcare helps clinicians, managers, administrators, payers, purchasers, accreditors, consumer groups, and other stakeholders meet national mandates to assess and improve quality of care by providing the following tools and guidance: Results from the National Inventory of Mental Health Quality Measures, a federally funded study summarizing clinical, technical, and scientific properties of more than 300 process measures A user-friendly format that helps potential measure users find quality measures that reflect their priorities and meet their needs Guidance for healthcare organizations and clinicians on how to integrate measurement into a comprehensive approach to quality management An understanding of the relationship between process measurement and other approaches to quality assessment, in particular outcomes assessment-the focus of a companion guide, Outcome Measurement in Psychiatry: A Critical Review (APPI 2002) Improving Mental Healthcare, which includes extensive references as well as useful figures and tables illustrating key concepts, is essential reading for practicing clinicians, healthcare managers, medical students and psychiatric residents -- who must now meet ACGME requirements to learn about quality assessment and improvement -- as well as members of oversight organizations and consumer advocacy groups. It will prove invaluable for healthcare organizations seeking to improve quality of care, clinical training programs, and courses on quality assessment, healthcare management, and mental health policy.