Mental health care
In the institutional care of the earlier days, the mentally ill patients were cared for in the state hospitals, which were often referred to as asylums and gave the patients a way of life together with total psychiatric and medical care. The institutions were self-contained communities and villages. At the beginning, the hospitals gave hope, treatment and refuge to the mental patients and offered state-the-art treatment in what the management believed was a compassionate and humane ways. Being self-contained communities, the hospitals operated by furnishing their own medical care (Bazemore, 2005). The main principle of rehabilitation was emphasized through work in two areas, farming and the Cottage industries. In the cottage industries were the weaving chair seats, sewing, stencilling, woodworking and upholstering. Many of the sate asylums raised pigs and cows. The institutions also provided classes to their patients. The care involved various ways of addressing the social and entertainment needs of their patients which included pool tables, swimming areas, beauty parlours, picnic areas and libraries and patient dances. The hospitals also encouraged community involvement and interaction, and this was possible because they were located in or near populated areas rather than in the country sides. The fact the creation of the graves was done on the grounds shows the possibility of family abandonment and prolonged hospitalisations which further led to patients being buried simple graves that were only marked by numbers (Bazemore, 2005).
Fast forward to the current moments the focus of mental health endeavours turned to deinstitutionalisation. Gradually the state hospitals begun acquiring patients’ services from the community at large. In the current times, many of the state hospitals entered into agreement with general hospitals that are supposed to give acute and emergency medical care to their patients (Bazemore, 2005). This change culminated with the nationwide movement for Community Mental Health Care that was based on different hospitals. The first principle involves the designation of local centres for mental health to be excusive agents, and were given responsibility for a particular population. The focus in the community based care services is directed to prevention and offering early intervention so as to reduce the demand for the services in the long-run. Unlike the institutional care, the new approach emphasized on treating mentally ill persons in their home communities where the environment is least restrictive. In addition the community based care is based on providing a variety of care, which includes the provision of services required by the Departments of HealthCare so as to meet the consumer needs in the groups targeted by the department, and other services to adults with severe mental ailments , youth and children with emotional disorders and traditional prevention, counselling services and early interventions. However both of these approaches to mental health care apply the principles engaging a variety of professionals while at the same time engaging the community so as improve interactions or tap on the intervention skills of the specialists (Ahr, 2005).
The community based health care offer better services than the institutional care. The health care service is provided by the health centres as exclusive agents which makes it possible to focus on prevention and intervention early enough. Moreover, treating the patients in their communities eliminate the restriction and abandonment observed in the earlier approach. The patients are thus able to do normal functions and be full participants in the community (Oss, 2004) .The effectiveness of the services was evidenced by the decreasing population to the state hospitals. The provision of institutional care to persons with persistent mental health problems basically has no ground as long as the individual’s case can be handled in community health care system. It should be handled in the community by behavioural health professionals who might be able to eliminate stigma and advocate parity legislation (Edwards, 2005).
References
Ahr, P. R. (2005). Community Mental Health Principles: A 40-Year Case Study. Behavioural Health Management, 25(1), 15-17.
Bazemore, p. h. (2005). When state hospitals were communities. Behavioural health management, 2
Oss, M. E. (2004). All Roads Lead to Community-Based Care. Behavioural Health Management. p. 6.
Edwards, D. J. (2005). THE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH INDUSTRY? Behavioural Health Management, 25(3), 49.
