Role of Nursing in Mental Health

Role of Nursing in Mental Health

Introduction

The care of mental health is one of the vital elements of the health care and is often neglected. As the nurses are providing core health care, their contribution to the effective care of mental health is most desired. It is a fact that people suffering from mental disorders face stigmatization around the world and in the United States, the services aimed at improving mental health are not achieving their sought after effectiveness in the society. The role of nursing is central to providing immediate care, effective and relevant health services to the people suffering from mental disorders (Wahl & Cohen, 2009). They have to carry out these activities while ensuring the human rights of the people being treated at the facilities and living in the society. While United States at Federal and State levels have developed laws and policies to ensure that proper health care is provided to them and their rights are upheld, these policies require further strengthening. This paper will explore the statistics of the people currently suffering from mental illness, state and feral policies on mental illness. This paper will also explore the health people 2020 initiative and will conclude by highlighting the role of nurses in the care of mental illness.

Discussion

Statistics on Mental Illness

The illnesses of mental disorders are common internationally and in United States. It is estimated that in a year, approximately every one adult in four suffers from a mental disorder which can be diagnosed. It is also estimated that about 26.2% people aged 18 years and above suffer from some kind of mental illness. When the percentages are calculated on the bases of U.S. census result of 2004, it can be observed that around 57.7 million people aged 18 and above suffer from diagnosable mental illness. Among the people suffering from mental illness, around 6 percent only suffers of mental disorders which can be considered as severe (Kessler et al, 2008). The mental disorders are attributed to be core reason for disabilities among United States and Canadian population (WHO, 2004). It is observed that people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. The diagnoses of mental disorders are made according to the DSM-IV in the United States (DSM-IV, 1994).

It is observed that approximately 9.5 % of population of U.S. aged 18 and above suffer from mood disorder. The 6.7% adult population of U.S. suffers from Major depressive disorder, having age of 18 years and above. This accounts to 14.8 million adults of Americans. Chronic and mild depression affects 1.5 percent of adult population aged 18 and above of United States. This percentage, according to 2004 census reaches up to 3.3 million adults of America.

Federal and State Policies on Mental Illness

The services providing mental health have been a significant part of medical care. The state legislations and numerous policy discussions have addressed the issues of its availability, coverage and cost. The coverage of mental illness by the state ...