Impact of Constraints on Consumer Participation in Mental Health Care Services

Running head: ESSAY
Written Assessment
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Author Note

ESSAY1
Introduction- Mental health care has been recognised as an integral component of
health and is not merely restricted to the absence of mental disorders. Mental health
encompass a broad range of activities that are responsible for directly enhancing the
wellbeing of the affected people (Naslund, Aschbrenner, Marsch & Bartels, 2016). In
addition, mental health, similar to other health aspects are affected by a plethora of
socioeconomic factors that must be addressed via the implementation of comprehensive
strategies for prevention, promotion, management, and recovery of the people. In other
words, mental health refers to the state of a person who functions at a reasonable level of
behavioural and expressive adjustment. Taking into consideration the perspectives of positive
psychology, mental health care focuses on the capability of the person to maintain
equilibrium between efforts and activities for accomplishing psychological resilience
(Zeanah, 2018). According to the tripartite model, mental wellbeing encompasses three
different components namely, social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. In other words,
mental health is considered as a form of unstable continuum that is marked by different
values of an individual’s mental health and is commonly associated with positive attributes
(Joshanloo, 2019). This essay will be based on scholarly evidences and elaborate on the
impact of constraints on consumer participation in mental health care services.
Consumer participation constrain- The term consumer contribution, in relation to
mental health services refers to the involvement and engagement of individuals who seek
treatment for mental health services, through different paid positions for individuals having
lived experience of different mental disorders. Enabling involvement of the consumers in the
mental health care planning process refers to a principle that is protected by present-day
mental health policy and strategies, and a possibly effective technique of enhancing the
culture and receptiveness of different mental health services. It has often been found that
meaningful mental health care planning requires the consumers to be not only encouraged

ESSAY2
and motivated for engaging in different participatory discussions, but also requires them to
have sufficient awareness and knowledge about the disorders and their treatment (Reeves,
Parker & Konkle-Parker, 2016). However, it has often been found that the consumers
generally lack service and proper staff feedback about their mental condition. In addition,
they are often provided with inadequate support and information for contributing
meaningfully to clinical decision making about their mental health. According to Brophy,
Roper, Hamilton, Tellez and McSherry (2016) the usage of restraint in mental health services
for the management of behaviour of the affected consumers also leads to constraint in
consumer participation. The researchers highlighted that the consumers generally do not
participate in their treatment owing to the fact that they are often isolated and subjected to
poor practices. In addition, the demonstration of excessive force, paternalistic attitudes and
lack of empathy from the healthcare providers generally create a negative influence on the
contribution of the consumers. Furthermore, researchers also claim that the aspect of patient
confidentiality acts in the form of an operative but possibly ill-used obstruction between the
consumers and the mental health professionals.
According to Hattingh et al. (2015) the mental health consumers generally indicate
the desire of obtaining information about their disorder and treatment in a manner that
demonstrate respect and dignity towards their confidentiality and privacy, in an appropriate
area. Thus, the service users highlighted that a failure to safeguard confidentiality of the
consumers, at the time of pharmacy interaction, unauthorised access of the healthcare staff to
sensitive health related information, and lack of proper layout for initiating private
discussions act as significant barriers and prevent their participation. In addition, the
persistent failure of the healthcare professionals to deliver the service users with important
pharmacological facts and choice decreases their health literacy and develops as one of the
most prevalent constraint to significant consumer participation in care planning (Stone &

ESSAY3
Waldron, 2019). The same has been affirmed by Gurung et al. (2017) where educated
consumers stated that they were commonly ill-equipped to take part in the care planning
process, which in turn could be accredited to their absence of technical familiarity about
procedures connecting to treatment, monitoring and assessment, policy making, and mental
health realted international commandments. In addition, the yearning to play a part in the
treatment processes also gets outshined by their fear of disgrace and discernment.
This was in accordance to the findings by Stomski and Morrison (2017) where it was
found that mental health service providers generally hold stigmatising attitudes and
perceptions towards the lack of capacity of the consumers to make informed decision about
the treatment and this perception typically acts as a barrier to consumer participation.
Moreover, evidences also elaborate on the fact that centralization of the health system
procedures is a major factor that restricts the access to consumer participation, since there are
several people suffering from mental disorders who reside in rural regions, while the health
services are generally provided in urban areas. In other words, the non-existence of rural level
mechanism for providing mental health services also result in decreased participation of the
service users in the care process (Knight & Winterbotham, 2019). In the words of Newman,
O'Reilly, Lee and Kennedy (2015) also stated that the consumers also face problems at the
time of building rapport and relationship with the healthcare providers and this limits their
participation in the treatment process. In addition, the consumers also report that fear acts as a
significant element of this relationship and other barriers are associated with restricted
freedom, lack of choice about treatment, poor information on medication, threat and coercion,
all of which inhibit the role of the consumers in the decision making process.
Consumer’s voice in mental health care- Consumer voice forms an essential
component of mental health care since it focuses on providing adequate opportunity of any
person who has a past or current lived experience of emotional or psychological distress, to