MODULE 3 ASSIGNMENT

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MODULE 3 ASSIGNMENT

Question 1

Factors that Impede Advance Planning

One factor that hinders advance care planning is the patient’s failure to recognize the significance of advance care planning (Hong et al., 2018). Some patients do not see the need for advance care planning since they think it will never reach a point where they will be unable to make decisions independently. To a greater extent, people’s ignorance of the necessity of advance care planning programs has affected the advance care planning programs since the programmers lack enough people to motivate to get planning. Also, some patients might be in denial of terminal illness, which may hinder the person from seeking advance care planning.

In addition, some people may plan to use their savings to seek treatment for potentially terminal illnesses instead of advance care planning. For example, a family may choose to use their real estate savings to finance the risk of long-term care expenditure. Other people may choose to cater to their long-term care needs based on their financial assets, income, and home equity (Bonnet et al.,2019).

Another factor that impedes advance care planning is avoidance of discussions relating to advance care planning. Fulmer et al. (2018) reveal that many individuals do not take part in conversations concerning advance care planning for various reasons, such as feeling uncomfortable or fear of losing hose. By avoiding such conversations, individuals fail to understand the importance of advance care planning from other people’s perspectives, which impedes their advance care planning.

Effective Measures to Raise Awareness among Americans about Advance Planning

One of the effective measures that can be used to raise awareness among Americans about advance planning is use of mass media campaigns tailored to inform the audience about the benefit of advanced care planning. Stead et al. (2019) reveals that mass media campaigns assist in exposing message to a larger proportion of people through the use of media. The ability of the mass media campaign to reach wider population makes it an effective tool for creating awareness among Americans about advance planning.

Another effective measures that can be used to raise awareness among Americans about advance planning is use promoting open discussions in social media (Mack & Dosa, 2020). Social media should be brought to the forefront of health care information. Social media gives space for people to discuss medical problems outside the healthcare facilities. Since many families with sick relatives use social media to share their experiences and findings of a particular disease, we can use that opportunity to create awareness on these families on the importance of advance care planning.

In addition, government, NGOs, and healthcare organizations can collaborate to educate the public on advance care planning. The government can support different initiatives by healthcare organizations to create awareness on advance care planning. Collaborative efforts are vital in promoting advance care planning, allowing different organizations to link (Mack & Dosa, 2020).

Question 2

Factors that Have Led to Shift in Utilization of Ambulatory Care Services

One of factors that have led to a shift from inpatient hospitalization to the use of ambulatory care services is cost (Sultz & Young, 2017). Building ambulatory care units in areas that are considerably cheaper to operate than in hospitals has increased the number of patients seeking healthcare services in these ambulatory care units since the services offered is affordable (Vogenberg & Santilli 2018). A reduction in outpatient care costs leads to more patients choosing to be treated at ambulatory care units. The patient can go home after the treatment instead of being admitted to the hospital overnight. To ensure effective utilization of outpatient services, ambulatory care units should be built in low-income areas.

Another factor that has resulted in the shift from inpatient hospitalization to ambulatory care services is patient expectation. Ensuring that ambulatory facilities provide convenient and easy access motivates more patients to choose to get medical services from these units since the services are readily available and easily acquired. Besides, ambulatory facilities giving patients shorter visiting lengths have shifted to ambulatory care services. When the visiting hours are set according to the patient’s wants, the patient feels valued, and he may wish to keep seeking help in the same facility. Therefore, it is required that all facilities operate to satisfy their customer’s expectations.

Competition is another factor that has contributed to the shift of utilization to ambulatory care services in the healthcare system. The ongoing competition between hospitals and other healthcare organizations has forced hospitals to add ambulatory care units to overcome this competition. Many hospitals prefer adding ambulatory services since it is cheaper than making capital investments. Competition has resulted in more ambulatory care units, thus shifting the utilization to outpatient services from the inpatient services in the healthcare system.

In addition, technology advancements have moved to the utilization of ambulatory services. Advancement in technology has helped the ambulatory care units deliver organized treatment regimes. For example, remote monitoring has enabled patients to be monitored while away from the hospital; thus, fewer patients need hospitalization. Outpatient care will continue receiving a massive boost via the use of remote monitoring and other forms of cloud connectivity (Vogenberg & Santilli 2018).

Moreover, physician support is another factor that has motivated the shifting of utilization from inpatient to outpatient services. There is partnering within the physician groups in ambulatory care units, making referrals (Sultz & Young, 2017). Most patients have recently been in close contact with physicians, and therefore they can easily acquire medical services outside the medical facilities due to this close contact. This has consequently led to increased levels of outpatient support services. Patients receiving outpatient services often have a personal relationship with the doctors.

Another factor has played a role in shifting the utilization to outpatient care services in chronic disease treatment. First, patients suffering from chronic diseases are best-taken and easily managed in ambulatory care facilities. The desire to treat more chronic diseases has led to hospitals building outpatient care units (Lasserson et al., 2018).

Question 3

Factors that Impede Access to Mental Illness Treatment

Due to the complicated nature of psychological problems, successful treatment generally involves regular contact with mental health care specialists and a range of support services. However, most mental health care services are unavailable or are sometimes under-utilized, mainly in developing countries. Several factors hinder access to mental illness treatment. One of these factors is the Lack of geographical accessibility (Sultz & Young, 2017; Tristiana et al., 2018). Within the distant regions, not all persons can access dependable transportation to care, and so this problem notably hits the most disadvantaged, comprising the low-income groups and disabled persons. Rural residents are more prone than urban people to depend on vehicles as a mode of mobility, so rural inhabitants without autos are more separated from effective care. In addition, there are fewer psychological physicians than healthcare professionals in-network plans, so residents must travel longer for mental healthcare. Mental care services may be more significant for rural communities, but care may be unattainable without access to public transport.

Another factor that hinders access to mental illness treatment is poor mental health awareness (Muhorakeye & Biracyaza, 2021). In both developed and developing countries, the Lack of information on mental illness hinders individuals from knowing more about mental illness and seeking out medication (Lopez et al., 2018). Sultz and Young (2017) also urge that a lack of proper understanding of mental disorders impairs the ability of the family members to provide needed attention to mentally ill relatives.

Another factor that hinders the accessibility of mental health treatment is shame and stigmatization. Muhorakeye and Biracyaza (2021) urge that mentally ill individuals fail to seek medical care due to the shame and stigma of being diagnosed with mental disorders. Also, some community members may feel embarrassed when family members and friends find out that they seek mental ill-treatment caused by social stigma. In addition, some people may fear to reach out for help since the mental health provider may be an associate or a friend, and others may fear being seen walking into and out of a mental health clinic.

The unavailability of adequate medication and health care providers has also hindered the accessibility of mental health treatment in some areas (Muhorakeye & Biracyaza, 2021). Many developing countries lack sufficient essential medicines, and these countries are only limited to access to severe psychological disorders. For example, according to World Health Organization (WHO), some developing countries lack at least one standard antipsychotic, one antidepressant, and one antiepileptic medication accessible in primary health care services (WHO, 2017).

Lastly, some people fail to seek mental ill-treatment due to poor affordability (Muhorakeye & Biracyaza, 2021). For example, in the United States, psychiatric treatment is costly due to the high medication prices, which leads to only a few patients seeking out these services. In addition, insurance policies do not cover psychological disorders in most countries, thus making mental ill-treatment expensive for many people (Sultz & Young, 2017).

References

Bonnet, Carole, Sandrine Juin, and Anne Laferrère. “Private Financing of Long Term Care: Income, Savings, and Reverse Mortgages.” Economie et Statistique 507.1 (2019): 5-24.

Cruz-Saco, María Amparo, and Mónika López-Anuarbe. “Ageing and long-term care planning perceptions of Hispanics in the USA: Evidence from a case study in New London, Connecticut.” Ageing International 42.4 (2017): 488-503.

Fulmer, T., Escobedo, M., Berman, A., Koren, M. J., Hernández, S., & Hult, A. (2018). Physicians’ views on advance care planning and end‐of‐life care conversations. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 66(6), 1201-1205. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.15374Hong, M., Yi, E. H., Johnson, K. J., & Adamek, M. E. (2018). Facilitators and barriers for advance care planning among ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S.: a systematic review of the current literature. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 20(5), 1277-1287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0670-9

Lasserson, D. S., Harris, C., Elias, T. N. E., Bowen, J. S. T., & Clare, S. (2018). What is the evidence base for ambulatory care for acute medical illness? Acute Med, 17(3), 148-153.

Lopez, V., Sanchez, K., Killian, M. O., & Eghaneyan, B. H. (2018). Depression screening and education: an examination of mental health literacy and stigma in a sample of Hispanic women. BMC public health, 18(1), 1-8.

Mack, D. S., & Dosa, D. (2020). Improving advanced care planning through physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) expansion across the United States: lessons learned from state-based developments. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®, 37(1), 19-26.

Muhorakeye, O., & Biracyaza, E. (2021). Exploring Barriers to Mental Health Services Utilization at Kabutare District Hospital of Rwanda: Perspectives From Patients. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 669. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638377Seymour, J. (2018). The impact of public health awareness campaigns on the awareness and quality of palliative care. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 21(S1), S-30. https://dx.doi.org/10.1089%2Fjpm.2017.0391Stead, M., Angus, K., Langley, T., Katikireddi, S. V., Hinds, K., Hilton, S., … & Bauld, L. (2019). What is the impact of mass media campaigns on behaviour and other outcomes? Findings from the review of reviews (review A). In Mass media to communicate public health messages in six health topic areas: a systematic review and other reviews of the evidence. NIHR Journals Library.

Sultz, H. A., & Young, K. M. (2017). Health care, USA: understanding its organization and delivery. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Tristiana, R. D., Yusuf, A., Fitryasari, R., Wahyuni, S. D., & Nihayati, H. E. (2018). Perceived barriers to mental health services by the family of patients with mental illness. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 5(1), 63-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2017.12.003Vogenberg, F. R., & Santilli, J. (2018). Healthcare Trends for 2018. American Health & Drug Benefits, 11(1), 48-54. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5902765/Wendrich-van Dael, A., Bunn, F., Lynch, J., Pivodic, L., Van den Block, L., & Goodman, C. (2020). Advance care planning for people living with dementia: an umbrella review of effectiveness and experiences. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 107(2020), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103576World Health Organization. (2017). Improving access to and appropriate use of medicines for mental disorders. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254794/9789241511421-eng.pdf