Summary
Care coordination enables health workers to meet patients’ needs and hasten their recovery. The care coordinators yearn for good relationships between the sick and the healthcare employees (Hannigan et al., 2018). They plan and employ techniques that ensure efficient service delivery to those suffering from different illnesses. For instance, mental health experts obtain better results when they engage, support, and accommodate their patients.
Analysis of Mental Health
Mental health is crucial because it influences people’s social behaviors and emotions. Those with mental sicknesses cannot interact without causing discomfort because most can neither observe hygiene nor communicate effectively. Limiting interactions affect patients and their loved ones psychologically. If the health condition persists, those who love and care for the patient lead complex lives (Hannigan et al., 2018). Relatives and friends work harder to raise funds for treatment while the health professionals are under extreme pressure to end the sickness. In some cases, cultural beliefs influence health workers’ procedures to cure illnesses.
Most mental health practices in hospitals originated from the western culture and understanding of the human body. For instance, physical examination, lab tests, and psychological evaluation enable health professionals to determine the class of mental illness that one is suffering from (Gopalkrishnan, 2018). Once they discover the health condition, doctors prescribe antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, and other psychiatric medications. Such practices have relieved symptoms and cured many mental health patients.
Despite providing powerful frameworks for alleviating mental sickness, some people do not like Europeans’ practices because they are contrary to their traditions. According to Gopalkrishnan (2018), non-western cultures focus on the community processes while westerners insist on individual pathology when they approach human health. Therefore, health workers must be aware of the complexities associated with working across cultures. They should strive to accommodate the views and beliefs of each patient to avoid getting into problematic situations. Medical professionals may seek community intervention when the hospital does not have alternative treatment procedures or resources to meet the patient’s cultural expectations.
Community Resources
The surrounding community enables mental hospitals to deliver more services by availing of various resources. In many cases, the health providers sign partnership agreements with individuals or organizations that own or control essential resources (Castillo et al., 2019). Such deals are possible when the hospital values social responsibility and values the contribution of community members whose expertise is outside the healthcare system. Good relationships with members of the public enable health workers to access the following community resources:
- schools;
- workplaces;
- families;
- food banks;
- public housing;
- public transportation (Castillo et al., 2019).
Heath providers utilize these resources to develop a safe and effective continuum of care. Their absence makes it hard to take preventive measures and attain mental health goals.
Goals to Attain
Mental health patients recover when the healthcare providers meet specific goals in the course of their treatment. According to Hannigan et al. (2018), a hospital with effective care coordination plans promotes recovery by connecting patients with the system of care. The coordination involves using human, natural, and artificial resources to administer care. As a care coordinator in a community care center, I intend to use the resources at my disposal to attain crucial targets.
Effective Communication
There should be adequate means of communication between all people involved in ensuring the recovery of the patients. For instance, patients must send messages or call their doctors, nurses, or caregivers when face-to-face communication is impossible. Those close to the patient should remain loyal and offer complete care by keeping promises and listening to them (Hannigan et al., 2018). Such investments in quality relationships give hope and fill the victims’ minds with positive thoughts.
Teamwork
In the absence of teamwork, staff members cannot engage their colleagues about the patient’s condition. For instance, when the health workers are not team players, they leave their shifts without writing informative reports about their experiences with the victims. With teamwork, all the parties involved in patients’ recovery will cherish conducting discussions to identify new service-centered techniques (Hannigan et al., 2018). Therefore, there should be proper reporting and adequate time for the interaction of staff members, patients, and the public.
Proper Utilization of Community Resources
Health professionals can use community resources to cure and prevent mental sickness when interacting with other people in the community. For instance, they can access schools whose infrastructure facilitates the implementation of mental distress prevention interventions (Castillo et al., 2019). When members of the public take part in such programs, they will avoid and detect mental sickness. Sometimes early treatments protect victims and their loved ones from long-term suffering. Thus, I will encourage the community care center to invest more time and resources in using valuable resources in the community.
Healthcare providers should have care coordination plans to obtain the best outcomes for their patients. Mental health patients find it hard to interact with other people without causing discomfort or landing in problems. Those who care for people in mental distress should develop quality relationships through effective communication and teamwork. They will obtain better results if they use various resources in the community to treat and prevent mental illnesses.
References
Castillo, E. G., Ijadi-Maghsoodi, R., Shadravan, S., Moore, E., Mensah, M. O., Docherty, M., Aguilera Nunez, M. G., Barcelo, N., Goodsmith, N., Halpin, L. E., Morton, I., Mango, J., Montero, A. E., Rahmanian Koushkaki, S., Bromley, E., Chung, B., Jones, F., Gabrielian, S., Gelberg, L.,… Wells, K. B. (2019). Community interventions to promote mental health and social equity. Current Psychiatry Reports, 21(5). Web.
Gopalkrishnan, N. (2018). Cultural diversity and mental health: Considerations for policy and practice. Frontiers in Public Health, 6. Web.
Hannigan, B., Simpson, A., Coffey, M., Barlow, S., & Jones, A. (2018). Care coordination as imagined, care coordination as done: Findings from a cross-national mental health systems study. International Journal of Integrated Care, 18(3). Web.