RES 861 assignments

The importance of addressing this problem is because people’s mental health depends on their use or rejection of mental health treatment. Knowing the positive reasons that people take advantage of services may help bring additional people in need in contact with services. Knowing the barriers may lead to policies or programs that can overcome the barriers. Lack of mental health treatment has dire implications including lost productivity, unemployment, job absenteeism, and lack of involvement in the community (Mental Health Workforce in Texas, 2016).

Study Purpose

The purpose of the qualitative study is to establish how the provision of mental health services as part of social entrepreneurship can benefit the nation. Through understanding the mind of those in need of mental health services with special emphasis on the acceptance and rejection of mental health services it will be possible to come up with a business model that is attractive to those in need of the services. The target population will be residents of Texas. Texas has been identified to have a relatively high number of people in need of mental health services. By understanding what drives people to seek mental health services, it will be possible for one to identify the best strategies to ensure that the proposed business meet its goal of money generation and solving a social issue.

Research Question

The following research questions will help to guide this qualitative study:

Hypothesis(es) Comment by Dawn Howell: These are not properly developed hypotheses based on your one research question.

The research questions are guided by the following hypothesis

· There is a high rate of mental health conditions in Southern Texas

· Cost is a factor impacting the population’s utilization of mental health services

Research Method Rationale

It is appropriate for answering the research questions that focus on the reasons that contribute to mental health patients to accept or reject treatment because it provides primary verbal data that is collected in detail. It is appropriate for addressing the problem statement which notes that there are factors that contribute to mental health patient’s decision whether to reject or accept treatment because of the effectiveness and flexibility in collecting information from the healthcare providers based on their experience.

The qualitative approach is very effective when a phenomenon has already being identified and defined. It is appropriate for this study because the phenomenon is clearly defined as the factors that mental health professionals identify as reasons people utilize or reject mental health services. The literature has determined the causes of the low utilization of mental health in South Texas to include limitations to accessing health care. It also identified other barriers to specialty mental health care utilization (Augsberger, Yeung, Dougher, &Hahm, 2015). What it has not defined are the reasons people use or reject mental health services.

Review of the Literature Plan Comment by Dawn Howell: This section is very good.

This literature review will address the issue that some populations openly seek out mental health services as they have identified that they are at high risk of mental illness. On the other hand, some populations reject mental health services regardless of whether they need it or not citing stigmatization and victimization (Sebastian & Richards, 2017). The need to understand the populations either accepting or rejecting mental health services stems out from the need to improve the mental health status of the nation.

The literature review seeks to reveal what is known as concerns the nation’s mental health. This literature review will address the topic of mental health services with special emphasis being placed on the availability of the service, the availability of infrastructure supporting the service and the perception of people towards the service. The review will analyze the populations that have readily accepted and are willing to seek mental health services as well as those that reject and are unwilling to seek mental health services. The review is based on the fact that not all people have embraced mental health services and on the fact that there is a gap in the delivery of mental health care services.

The chapter will be divided into seven sections. The seven sections are mental health infrastructure, populations that accept mental health, populations that reject mental health, populations that have access to mental health, populations that do not have access to mental health, reasons for the rejection of mental health and the reasons for the use of mental health services. All the sections will have three sub-sections. The subsections will include introduction of the section, themes in the section and synthesis of the sections.

The literature review in addition aims to compare the existing literature on mental health. The comparison is supposed to provide light on whether there are similar opinions and views on the subject. The comparison as well helps in the identification of the various divergent views on the subject matter. Seven sections organize this paper. The literature review is divided into seven sections so that to touch on all subjects that touches on mental health. The only subject that relates to mental health that is not touched on in the literature review is the treating of mental health. It is not touched on, as it is not the focus of the study. The first section is mental health infrastructure, and it focuses on the availability of mental health infrastructure in the nation. A review of literature in the section is based on the knowledge that mental health services infrastructures are not well distributed to offer assistance to those in need of mental health services.

The second section is a section that focuses on the reasons for lack of access to mental health. The need to review related literature is driven by the knowledge that there are individuals that need mental health; however, they choose not to get it. The third section analyzes the population that has easy access to mental health services. The fourth section deals with the populations that use mental health services. The fifth section focuses on the populations that reject mental health services. The sixth section focuses on the reasons for the use of mental health services. The review is on the need to understand why people seek or do not seek mental health services. The seventh section focuses on the reasons for the rejection of mental health services.

The literature will be conducted through a systematic review using the Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed, Cuiden, Cochrane, google scholar, ISI, and PsycINFO databases. The review was conducted using key terms related to the sections of the study. To make the study as relevant as possible, only studies done and published in the last five years were reviewed.

The problem of mental health has evolved historically overtime. Mental health in the United States has declined in the last twenty years. He cites that suicide rates have increased twice fold from 1990. Furthermore, he cites that the substance abuse more so of opiates has become epidemic. The disability award for mental disorders has also increased dramatically, a possible indication of the nation’s mental health dwindling.

This study will focus on the gap in research regarding the reasons people utilize or reject mental health treatment. The problem is that it is not known how mental health providers describe the factors influencing individual decisions to utilize or reject mental health services. Without an understanding of what the reasons are for use or rejection, it is unlikely that successful interventions can occur that would enable more people to utilize mental health services in the state.

References

Augsberger, A., Yeung, A., Dougher, M., & Hahm, H. C. (2015). Factors influencing the underutilization of mental health services among Asian American women with a history of depression and suicide. BMC health services research, 15(1), 542. https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-015-1191-7