How does the government allocate their scarce funds and resources for mental health treatment, and should they allocate things differently? That is the question these past few blog posts have been attempting to explore through the help of relating questions and sources.
After doing research with the help of these sources, I now have a much better understanding of the answer to that question, and it's not as easy to answer as one might think. Here has what's helped me shape me knowledge of this topic.
In this article by The Washington Post, which I touched on in Post #5, the author explains the rise of deinstitutionalization and how it affected mental health funds from the government, which slowly shifted to better fund prescription drugs rather than inpatient and residential facilities. This look on current funding better helped me to understand how the mental health system is failing us, especially with the increase in funding for prescription drugs and the scarce funding for other treatment options.
In my personal opinion, the government should be spending their funding on longer term facilities that keep patients safe and healthy quicker rather than drugs. Whether that is a good solution to this problem or not is debatable. However, these articles from The Advisory Board and The Brookings Institute, both of which were mentioned in Post #4 helped to put into perspective just how much the U.S. spends on these drugs compared to other countries. These numbers got me thinking about how things should change in regards to our culture and living standards in the U.S. to bring the spending cost of drugs down. In what ways should we support our mentally ill that other countries are already? How can we change, not just as a system, but as a country?
Finally, in Post #3, I covered what government defines as "mental health care". For me, it was imperative to understand this, as without a basic definition of what types of illnesses the government can insure and support, this entire research question would mean nothing. This article from Mental Health America examines the amounts of funding that both the federal and state levels can provide. On the federal level, only certain treatment options are covered, and due to scarce funding, many people don't have access to the care they need.
Overall, to help people who are suffering from mental illness, this issue of properly allocating scarce resources and funds needs to be solved, for the benefit of millions across American and even the health care system itself.
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| khn.org |
In this article by The Washington Post, which I touched on in Post #5, the author explains the rise of deinstitutionalization and how it affected mental health funds from the government, which slowly shifted to better fund prescription drugs rather than inpatient and residential facilities. This look on current funding better helped me to understand how the mental health system is failing us, especially with the increase in funding for prescription drugs and the scarce funding for other treatment options.
In my personal opinion, the government should be spending their funding on longer term facilities that keep patients safe and healthy quicker rather than drugs. Whether that is a good solution to this problem or not is debatable. However, these articles from The Advisory Board and The Brookings Institute, both of which were mentioned in Post #4 helped to put into perspective just how much the U.S. spends on these drugs compared to other countries. These numbers got me thinking about how things should change in regards to our culture and living standards in the U.S. to bring the spending cost of drugs down. In what ways should we support our mentally ill that other countries are already? How can we change, not just as a system, but as a country?
Finally, in Post #3, I covered what government defines as "mental health care". For me, it was imperative to understand this, as without a basic definition of what types of illnesses the government can insure and support, this entire research question would mean nothing. This article from Mental Health America examines the amounts of funding that both the federal and state levels can provide. On the federal level, only certain treatment options are covered, and due to scarce funding, many people don't have access to the care they need.
Overall, to help people who are suffering from mental illness, this issue of properly allocating scarce resources and funds needs to be solved, for the benefit of millions across American and even the health care system itself.
