US Healthcare Accessibility & Affordability

Patient Population

The specific patient population that I plan to work with include adolescents with mental health. Mental health problems has increased significantly in adolescents in the past 30 years. The rise in mental health issues among adolescents have been contributed by social change such as pressure to conform with peers, violence, discrimination, stigma, and poor living conditions. Mental health problems disrupt with adolescent development and negatively impact on their quality of life vocationally, socially, and emotionally (Gaso et al., 2019).

Mental illness poses a serious public health concern among adolescents, which has become rampant in the United States. A rapid change in adolescent behaviors and risks in our contemporary society challenges the adolescents’ mental wellbeing. Statistics reveal that one out of five adolescents in the US has had a severe mental illness at one point in their life.  The three priority health issues low rate of screening for depressive disorder among adolescents.  According to Gaso et al. (2019), despite mental illness being common in this age group, adolescents are rarely screened mental illness, which may develop into chronic mental illness if not diagnosed early. The second priority health issue is assessment needs that do not address the needs of adolescents. Many adolescents may not be willing to seek help or may not have access to mental health because of the stigma attached to mental illness. It is crucial to change assessment practices to identify adolescents who are at risk and help them seek early prevention and intervention. The third priority health issue include timely interventions. It is important for nurses to recognize changes in adolescent’s behaviors and development and implement early intervention to improve health outcomes. Early diagnosis will help in managing at risk behaviors that could lead to mental health problems such as substance abuse and individual to receive timely interventions to prevent escalation of the problem to chronic mental illness that could be difficult to treat.

There are significant health indicators among adolescents with mental health problems. These include the number of youths who have presented depressive episode. Gaso et al. (2019) points out that 8.7% of youths aged 18 and 25 and 8.1% of adolescents aged 12 and 17 have experienced at least one depressive episode and other related symptoms. The high number of youths engaging in risk taking behaviors that are harmful to health. Data reveals that 13.6% of adolescents between 15 and 19 years of age has shown heavy episodic drinking. The high number of suicide rates among adolescents is also an important health indicator issues among adolescents.

The three related HP 2030 Objectives that apply to the priority health issues in this population include the core objectives, developmental objectives, and research objectives. The core objectives will help to measure the variability of mental health issues among adolescents, the developmental objectives will help to establish evidence based interventions towards addressing health challenges involved in mental health in this population, and research objectives will help to address the emerging issues on the prevalence of mental health among adolescents (Madans & Weeks, 2016).

SDOH Assessment

SDOH is defined as conditions such as cultural environments, education, and poverty that influence health outcomes of communities and individuals. The five domains of SDOH include health care access and quality, education access and quality, economic stability, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context (Artiga & Hinton, 2018).

The tools that are used to help healthcare practitioners to determine community based resources and patients health needs to address SDOH include the Health-Related Social Needs Screening Tool, Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences tool, and, The American Academy of Family Physicians offers a social determinants of health screening tool (Artiga & Hinton, 2018). One of the SDOH domains that can be applied to this population include neighborhood and build environment. Most adolescent’s behaviors are shaped by the influences of neighborhood environment. If a child grows up in an environment where they are exposed to risky situations such as substance abuse, alcohol use, violence, and high crime rates, lack of access to resources, then the child’s mental health wellbeing may be adversely affected by the negative influences of neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods and built environment is defined as the physical environments in which people live that has a direct influence on their health outcomes through material deprivation, lack of access to resources, poor health behaviors, and inefficient psychosocial mechanisms.

SDOH Plan

The resources within the community that can be used to address the neighborhoods and built environment to improve health outcomes include: use of community revitalization initiatives that will help to improve service, social, and physical environments in neighborhoods and promote economic development. In addition, community collaborating resources can be used to bring people together and work collectively to achieve desired goals. For instance, public health agencies, stakeholders and members of the community can collaborate to create awareness on mental health issues affecting the community and how to over the challenge. Moreover, community policymakers can be used to help the community advocate for incorporation of mental health interventions in existing policies and opportunities to foster health equity. Inequity contributes to negative health outcomes, which means it is important to integrate equity considerations into policymaking to address mental health challenges in the community (Manchanda, 2019).

Addressing neighborhoods and built environment factors can improve the health of this population and promote a culture of health. For instance, increased access to transportation will improve quality of life because people will be able to access health care services. It will reduce the existing health disparities in terms of equity to care thus improve overall health. The neighborhoods will transform into havens of safe with enhanced neighborhood security. Violence is a public health issue and has been identified as the leading cause of mental health issues among adolescents especially those living in families where violence is rampant especially among parents. Violence has been associated with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD among others. Develop, through a strategic framework, it will help minimize violence within the community. Furthermore, Individuals within the community will have access to the right resources that are important to improved health outcomes. For instance, they will have accessible infrastructure, safe walkable streets, and access to local amenities such as healthcare (Manchanda, 2019).

References

Artiga, S. & Hinton, E. (2018). Beyond Health Care: The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting Health and Health Equity. Retrieved from https://files.kff.org/attachment/issue-brief-beyond-health-care

Gassó, A. M., Klettke, B., Agustina, J. R., & Montiel, I. (2019). Sexting, mental health, and victimization among adolescents: A literature review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(13), 2364.

Madans, J.H. & Weeks, J.D. (2016). A Framework for Monitoring Progress Using Summary Measures of Health. Journal of Aging and Health, 28(7), 1299-1314.

Manchanda, R. (2019). The Triple Aim and the Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/OtYf0RsSCTs