NURSING POSITION ARTICLE

Position Paper

The chosen White Paper for completing this discussion is "How Mental Health Care Should Change as A Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic" by Carmen Moreno et al., published in 2020. The Position Paper was prepared by a group of international clinicians, advanced mental healthcare professionals, and mental healthcare users to create awareness about the mental health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic (Moreno et al., 2020). The paper argues that today's interconnectedness influenced society's vulnerability to this infection, but this still provides the infrastructure necessary to improve mental healthcare delivery (Moreno et al., 2020). Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic response strategy provides the opportunity to enhance mental healthcare services (Moreno et al., 2020). The selected White Paper relates to the health care policy effort of interest, the bill introduced to Congress by Patty Murray, Senator for Washington, S. 3799: PREVENT Pandemics Act, advocating for the establishment of a better protocol for preventing and responding to future pandemics (Govtrack.us, 2022). It touches on the mental health burden that came with the pandemic and provided insightful recommendations. 

The chosen White Paper can advance current health systems, practice, and organizations to improve health outcomes because it sees opportunity in chaos. It equips stakeholders with vital knowledge for addressing the potential mental health challenges of outbreaks like the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreno et al. (2020) inform that these challenges face the general public, COVID-19 patients, persons with pre-existing mental problems, and healthcare workers (Moreno et al., 2020). It then goes on to narrate the mental health service responses that have been deployed during the pandemic, make recommendations for sustainable mental health delivery, and assess mental health outcomes in clinical practice (Moreno et al., 2020). Hence, one can also argue that the selected Position Paper can the economic, legal, and regulatory processes by supporting public funding for treating and caring for affected people and shaping legal and regulatory frameworks and demands for emergency and disaster preparedness. 

 

References

Govtrack.us. (2022). S. 3799: PREVENT Pandemics Act: Overview. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s3799

Moreno, C. et al. (2020). How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The LANCET Psychiatry, 7(9), 813-824. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30307-2