Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act of 2023

The role of policy in health is inseparable. Politics significantly dictate an array of interventions in healthcare. The government incorporates the population’s power bestowed upon them to produce policies that influence public health interventions to safeguard a community’s health and welfare. Most recently, on 30th March 2023, the Senate introduced the Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act of 2023 (Congress.gov, n.d.). The bill aims to protect and improve the mental wellness of underserved individuals in the suburban regions who depend on income from farming, fishing, and forestry. This bill establishes grants to support the development of mental health and substance use services within rural regions. According to Mongelli et al. (2020), underserved individuals in the United States face various challenges to access mental health services, including social stigma, unavailable mental health units and services, inaccessible hospitals, unaffordable services, lack of medical insurance, and delays in treatment. Mental health and wellness are a basic need and a public health concern globally. Therefore, necessary efforts toward ensuring healthcare for all and reducing disparities in access are crucial.

The significant social determinants of health impacting the populations in the proposed Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act bill are economic instability, lack of education, lack of support system, and inefficient healthcare services. People living in rural areas are likely to have inadequate healthcare services owing to the limited number of clinicians willing to provide services to the region and low socioeconomic status (Coombs et al., 2021). Thus, in the event of sickness, they are predisposed to delays in accessing health services due to limited funds, lack of health insurance, long travel costs, and hours in search of appropriate care facilities.

Telehealth adoption in healthcare is extensive to narrow the barriers to access. Research by McBain et al. (2023) found that telehealth significantly improved access to specialized health services and mental health treatment in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, where in-person services were unavailable. Results in this study demonstrate that the intergration of telehealth to promote rural healthcare areas can result in a marked expansion of mental health and substance use services, bypassing the avoidable travel and expensive treatment costs and time wastage. Hence, supporting the Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act will significantly impact the health outcomes of individuals living in rural areas with blue-collar jobs.

 Respond to this by either supporting or respectfully challenging this explanation on whether there is an evidence base to support the proposed health policy they described. 

A Bloated Bureaucracy and an Inclusive Supreme Court

Discussion

Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

· Textbook: Chapter 13, 14

· Lesson: Read this Week's Lesson which is located in the Modules tab

· Initial Post: minimum of 2 scholarly sources (must include your textbook for one of the sources). Follow-Up Post: minimum of 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.

· Your Initial Post and your Follow-Up Post must be based on the same Option that you chose in order to receive credit for both posts. 

Initial Post Instructions

For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating either Option 1 or Option 2:

·
Option 1: How does the bureaucracy affect your life, and thus, your freedom as an ordinary citizen? In what ways does it hinder or help your life? Do you see the bureaucracy as an effective aspect in your life or do you see issues with the bureaucracy as it stands? Why/why not? List one issue you would change concerning the bureaucracy and how you would remedy the issue.

·
Option 2: Identify a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court and discuss the nature of the case and the basis of the argument the Supreme Court used to reach the decision. Explain why you agree or disagree with the ruling?

Be sure to make connections between your ideas and conclusions and the research, concepts, terms, and theory we are discussing this week.

Follow-Up Post Instructions

Respond to the same Option you chose for your Initial Post (i.e., if you chose Option 1 for your Initial Post, your Follow-Up Pst should also be for Option 1). Respond to at least one peer. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification. Minimum of 1 scholarly source which can include your textbook or assigned readings or may be from your additional scholarly research.

Ebook:
https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9780135246849/pageid/11

The Struggle for Democracy, 2018 Elections and Updates Edition

Or
[email protected]

PWD: Bryanthierry@09

• Reflect on the four peer-reviewed articles you critically appraised in Module 4, related to your clinical topic of interest and PICOT.  
•  Article #1Zhou, X., Guo, J., Lu, G., Chen, C., Xie, Z., Liu, J., & Zhang, C. (2020). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on anxiety symptoms in young people: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 289, 113002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113002

Article #2 Porter, B., Oyanadel, C., Sáez-Delgado, F., Andaur, A., & Peñate, W. (2022). Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Child-Adolescent Population: A Developmental Perspective. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 12(8), 1220–1243. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe12080085

Article #3 Cohen, Z. P., Cosgrove, K. T., Akeman, E., Coffey, S., Teague, K., Hays-Grudo, J., Paulus, M. P., Aupperle, R. L., & Kirlic, N. (2021). The effect of a mindfulness-based stress intervention on neurobiological and symptom measures in adolescents with early life stress: a randomized feasibility study. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-021-03295-1

Article #4 Peter, A., Srivastava, R., Agarwal, A., & Singh, A. P. (2022). The Effect of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy on Anxiety and Resilience of the School Going Early Adolescents with Anxiety. Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 18(2), 176–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/09731342221127959 

PICOT  question- The clinical issue of interest is the management of anxiety symptoms in adolescents aged 13-18 years. Adolescents often prevalent anxiety concern due to unique stressors and challenges. Addressing anxiety symptoms during this developmental stage can essential to promote healthy psychological development and improve short- and long-term quality of life.

• Reflect on your current healthcare organization and think about potential opportunities for evidence-based change, using your topic of interest and PICOT as the basis for your reflection.
• Consider the best method of disseminating the results of your presentation to an audience. 

Part 4: Recommending an Evidence-Based Practice Change

• Briefly describe your healthcare organization, including its culture and readiness for change. (You may opt to keep various elements of this anonymous, such as your company name.)
• Describe the current problem or opportunity for change. Include in this description the circumstances surrounding the need for change, the scope of the issue, the stakeholders involved, and the risks associated with change implementation in general.
• Propose an evidence-based idea for a change in practice using an EBP approach to decision making. Note that you may find further research needs to be conducted if sufficient evidence is not discovered.
• Describe your plan for knowledge transfer of this change, including knowledge creation, dissemination, and organizational adoption and implementation.
• Explain how you would disseminate the results of your project to an audience. Provide a rationale for why you selected this dissemination strategy.
• Describe the measurable outcomes you hope to achieve with the implementation of this evidence-based change.
• Be sure to provide APA citations of the supporting evidence-based peer reviewed articles you selected to support your thinking.
• Add a lessons learned section that includes the following:
  • A summary of the critical appraisal of the peer-reviewed articles you previously submitted
  • An explanation about what you learned from completing the Evaluation Table within the Critical Appraisal Tool Worksheet Template (1-3 slides)

Watch the videos listed below and answer the questions that follow:

Adolescents & Addiction: 

https://youtu.be/MDh2tclDfSI

Adolescent Drug Addiction

https://youtu.be/-mUcMrzXq_U

The Science of Relapse

https://youtu.be/WXxxcElL7Cs

Brain imaging on drugs

https://youtu.be/f2e98k0sTag

Please answer the following questions and indicate what videos helped you answer the question. 

1. Discuss three things new to you or that stood out to you from watching the videos. 
2. Identify at least two biases you may have regarding persons with a substance use disorder and how this may affect your work/treatment. (Note if your preferences changed after reviewing this week’s material). 
3. How vital is substance/addiction education for your PMHNP/future career? 
4. What is one specific thing that you can do to increase your knowledge of substance use disorders? 
5. Find one online video that discusses the effects of drugs on the brain. Choose one type of drug (i.e. stimulants) and briefly describe how it affects the brain.