Barriers to Effective Mental Health Care

This paper discusses the barriers that exist in mental health care, including stigma and discrimination, finance, substance abuse, failure to detect suicidal tendencies, and under treatment. Measures to minimize or eradicate these barriers are also suggested.

Running head: BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Barriers to Effective Mental Health Care
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Barriers to Effective Mental Health Care
It is the right of every human being on earth to have access to highest attainable level
of health care (Andrade et al., 2014). The World Health Organization provides as state of not
only physical well being but also of mental, psychological and emotional wellbeing. The
nurse plays a huge role in ensuring that the best possible care is offered to their patients.
Although this is the case, there are many barriers that hinder effective treatment. This paper
will focus on the barriers that exist in mental health care.
The first barrier is stigma and discrimination. Many people with mental health
problems are devalued and treated as if they were less human. The stigma and discrimination
make most of these patients shy away from visiting healthcare institutions or taking their
medication (Corrigan, Druss and Perlick, 2014). It is sad that about two thirds of people
living with mental disorders are not on treatment. Stigma towards such people is widespread
phenomenon in most countries in the world. The second barrier is that of finance. Most
patients with mental disorders find it hard to cater for the cost of treatment. Extensive
evidence has revealed that about 60-70 percent of people living with mental conditions do not
have the ability to cater for the cost of treatment (Hamilton, Coleman and Davis, 2017). Poor
economic status is therefore a great barrier to effective mental health treatment.
The third barrier to effective mental health care is substance abuse. A significant
proportion people with mental disorders result to drug and substance abuse (Price et al.,
2014). Discrimination and stigma may contribute to making the patients abuse drugs. Other
psychological problems may also contribute. Abusing substance and alcohol abuse increases
the chances for a patient to commit suicide. Drug abuse is therefore a significant barrier to
mental health care. the fourth barrier is the failure of the primary health care providers to
detect suicidal tendencies among the mentally ill patients. The fifth barrier that will be

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discussed is under treatment. Extensive evidence reveals that a significant number of the
patients are undertreated. For instance, some receive inadequate doses of antidepressants. The
result is ineffective treatment and failure to control the mental condition.
There are several measures that can be employed to minimise or eradicate these
barriers. The government as the primary health care provider should hold health promotions
aimed at reducing stigma and discrimination of the mentally ill patients. This has the
potential of reducing the discrimination and stigma. To address the issue of financial
constraints, the government and other well-wishers could greatly subsidize mental health care
to make it very affordable. The other measure that could be employed is ensuring that the
primary care providers are trained on ways of identifying and intervening appropriately for
patients with suicidal tendencies. Appropriate counselling should be done to those abusing
drugs and other substances to help them cease the addictive habit. Clinicians should be
trained well to ensure that they are aware of the right treatment for mental health conditions
to avoid undertreatment.

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References
Andrade, L. H., Alonso, J., Mneimneh, Z., Wells, J. E., Al-Hamzawi, A., Borges, G. &
Florescu, S. (2014). Barriers to mental health treatment: results from the WHO
World Mental Health surveys. Routledge.
Corrigan, P. W., Druss, B. G., & Perlick, D. A. (2014). The impact of mental illness stigma
on seeking and participating in mental health care. Routledge.
Hamilton, J. A., Coleman, J. A., & Davis, W. J. (2017). Leadership Perspectives of Stigma-
Related Barriers to Mental Health Care in the Military. Routledge.
Price, M., Yuen, E. K., Goetter, E. M., Herbert, J. D., Forman, E. M., Acierno, R., &
Ruggiero, K. J. (2014). mHealth: a mechanism to deliver more accessible, more
effective mental health care. Sage Publications.