Community Needs Assessment in New Hampshire
Milestone 1
A Looming Mental Health Crisis and Psychiatrist Shortage in Concord City, New Hampshire
Access to quality and affordable health services is every person’s right in the United States. The government and other agencies have the responsibility of ensuring that citizens can easily access health services without much strain in every part of the country by ensuring there are enough facilities that are well equipped and adequately staffed with highly qualified practitioners. However, this is never the case in Concord, New Hampshire where there are acute crises of the mental specialist’s shortage. Due to this problem, the Depart of Health in the region is unable to provide mental health services to the city residents based in the area as there no enough practitioners to offer these services.
Despite the fact that mental specialist problem is a serious problem in the country, the problem seems to hit hard some regions such as Concord as compared to other areas. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is increased need of these services in the country, but their provision is limited by the number of qualified medical staffs available to offer the behavioral health services. The current health statistic reveals that one individual out of the five citizens’ lives with a mental condition (Rich-Kern, 2016). This clearly depicts how bad the situation is in this region. Concord City is experiencing difficulties to find the mental practitioners who will offer services to the citizens who are in dire need of these services. The problem frequently arises due to the fact that the government is unable to pay these practitioners a salary that commensurates the current marketing standards. As a consequence, they are unwilling to work in these facilities at such a salary (Rich-Kern, 2016).
The shortage of the mental specialists has been so acute that it has led to the closure of the mental medical facilities that were once set up to address the problem. For instance, inpatient was shut down in 2010. This has resulted in the under the provision of the mental medical services to the young children with the psychotic symptoms which linger in the pediatric wards for a longperiod of time (Solomon 2016).
Due to the mental practitioner’s shortage in the region, the mental facilities available are highly congested, and in some cases, the patients are discharged before they have stabilized (Nesnera & Alle, 2016). It is clearly observed that these mental ill health patients in New Hampshire have no access to adequate and quality services and this has attributed to the rose in the number of mental disorders.
It is also observed that the number of the hospital beds meant for the psychiatric patients in New Hampshire has also been declining gradually over the time. For instance, in 2010, there were about 189 psychiatric beds for the potentially dangerous patients who are normally admittedinvoluntarily. Nevertheless, this number has declined to 158 by 2016 leading to the loss of 30 beds (Rich-Kern, 2016). In other cases, the facilities have been opened up, but due to the shortage of the psychiatrist nurses, the operations have been delayed for a long time even for up to a period one year.
There is a need for the government to respond to the mental health crises in the city and act swiftly to alleviate the problem so as to ensure all its citizens have access to the health services that are not only of high quality but which are also affordable all the time. Low payment of the psychiatrist has been the deterrent factor, and there is a need for the responsible institutions to take charge and review salaries that are offered to these practitioners upward (Rich-Kern, 2016).
References
RICH-KERN, S. (2016). Psychiatric Services Gap Widens in NH. Business NH Magazine, 33(9), 31.
Solomon, D. (2016, July 21). Growing Pains for State Hospital's Crisis Unit. New Hampshire Union Leader. http://www.unionleader.com/health/Growing-pains-for-state-hospitals-crisis-unit-07222016
Nesnera, A.. & Allen, D.E. (2016). Expanding the Role of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners in a State Psychiatric System: The New Hampshire Experience. Psychiatric Services 67:5, May 2016.
