Solving a Problem in Your Community

Week 5: Solving a Problem in Your Community Preliminary Draft

This week, a preliminary draft of your Solving a Problem in Your Community Essay is due. It should be at least 750 words long, which is half the length of the completed essay that will be submitted in Week 7.

As you write, use the following sample outline as a mental model to help with the structure and organization of your work in progress. In addition, this week's discussion topic provides additional details on each element of the outline and will help you to get off to a strong start.

1. Introduction

· Hook

· Topic, its importance and relevance to readers

· Specific focus and purpose

· Thesis statement that previews the solution or solutions to the problem

2. Problem

· Causes and effects/impact

· History of what’s been done and its effectiveness

3. Potential solutions

· Option and its advantages/disadvantages

· Option and its advantages/disadvantages

4. Recommended solution

· Advantages and disadvantages

· Costs and Benefits

· Implementation steps and expected outcomes

5. Conclusion

· Synthesis/summary/significance and thesis

· Next steps

· Call to action

For this preliminary draft, it is expected that you will address at least the first three sections: the introduction, problem, and potential solutions. Provide in-text citations for at least three of the five sources you are planning to use. Include a references list for all sources used to this point.

Follow current APA guidelines for essay format, content, and citations. You should have a title page, references page, and section titles for each body section. Use this example as a template:  Student Essay Template.Links to an external site. Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader

Successful drafts will meet the following expectations.

· At least 750 words

· At least three academic, quality sources used and cited

· Current APA format, content, and citations

· Formatted as a Word document (.docx file)

· Submitted via the Week 5 assignment page

Essays will be evaluated using the following rubric.

Action

Select the Start Assignment button to begin.

Once you have uploaded your files, select Submit Assignment.

Rubric

Solving a Problem in Your Community Draft Rubric

This week, you will begin working on a research-based problem-solution essay to help solve a problem in your community. For the list of possible topics and complete assignment requirements, please see the project description in the course Introduction & Resources module.

The problem I have identified in my community is inadequate access to mental health services. The proof of this problem exists in various forms, including long wait times for appointments with mental health professionals, limited availability of affordable counseling services, and a lack of resources for individuals experiencing mental health crises. Additionally, there is a stigma surrounding mental health that often prevents individuals from seeking help, exacerbating the issue.

This problem is getting worse due to various factors such as increased stressors in modern life, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, and insufficient funding for mental health services. As more people experience mental health challenges, the demand for services continues to rise, leading to longer wait times and greater strain on existing resources.

My audience should care about this problem because it directly affects their well-being and that of their loved ones. Mental health issues can impact every aspect of a person's life, from their relationships to their work performance and overall quality of life. By addressing the lack of access to mental health services, we can improve the mental health outcomes of individuals in our community, leading to healthier, happier, and more productive lives for everyone.

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Week 4: Annotated Bibliography “Mental Health”

Isdory Lyamuya

DeVry University

ENGL135, Advanced Composition

Professor Lori Henson

March 24, 2024

Enhancing Access to Mental Healthcare Services: Efforts to Resolve the Long Wait Times, Stigma and Affordability in the Community

Annotated Bibliography

Alves-Bradford, J. M., Trinh, N. H., Bath, E., Coombs, A., & Mangurian, C. (2020). Mental health equity in the twenty-first century: Setting the stage.  Psychiatric Clinics,  43(3), 415-428.

Alves-Bradford et al.'s (2020) study delves into the ongoing disparities on mental health that adversely affect racial and ethnic minorities, stressing the critical role played by a holistic approach to attainment of mental health equity. Authors argues that attaining equity in health outcomes is a matter of having the knowledge of what goes into these disparities at various levels including personal, local, national, and global. They suggest a number of strategies such as population-based health services, community-based health care services, social determinant of health, community engagement, filling the pipeline of diverse health care professionals and supporting a diverse and culturally competent workforce.

The source is a peer reviewed journal article from Psychiatric clinics, a popular medical journal, which validates its credibility. The text is very suitable in that it presents measures that can be put in place for expansion of the availability of the mental health resources, special concern to the lowest social groups in the society. The article's mention on strengthening and diversifying community-based services, working on the social determinants and unifying communities can be referred to as tools for addressing inequity and fighting stigmatization. In addition, the recommendations for a diverse and culturally capable workforce can be incorporated in the strategies for cutting down long waiting times and availability.

Carbonell, A., Navarro‐Pérez, J. J., & Mestre, M. V. (2020). Challenges and barriers in mental healthcare systems and their impact on the family: A systematic integrative review.  Health & social care in the community,  28(5), 1366-1379.

The specific aim of the systemic integrative review was to identify challenges and barriers encountered in mental healthcare system, and consequences these create in relation to families. The present investigation explored several databases for articles published in 2015 to 2019 and study the impact of public mental health policies on the families’ lives. The findings of 32 of these studies revealed that there was a high structural interrelationship which constitutes cultural, economic and healthcare barriers which contribute to the treatment gap. Sometimes families compensate for the lack or poor functioning of the care system, which is what is called caregiving overload and depletion of quality of life. The study points out the need to engage all people affected with mental illness and their families in policy creation to make mental health care systems strong globally.

This source’s reliability is established by its ability to follow a thorough methodology, such as searching different reputable resources, applying the quality indicators for the study selection, and analyzing the findings through content analyses. In this case, the review is of great importance to the topic about the mental healthcare as it contains the essential elements related to the mental health service barriers within the health system and their impact on the families. The evidence around structural, cultural, economic and healthcare barriers that are contributing to the treatment gap and leading to a burden on caregivers. Therefore, it can be used as a foundation for presenting the issues and recommending methods for addressing them in the study.

Coombs, N. C., Meriwether, W. E., Caringi, J., & Newcomer, S. R. (2021). Barriers to healthcare access among US adults with mental health challenges: a population-based study.  SSM-population health,  15, 100847.

The research examined the 2017-2018 National Health Survey Information to determine the barriers to healthcare access which existed among adults with and without mental health problems in the United States. It was determined that 95.6% reported at least one barrier to service access, with the highest rates of that among individuals with the highest psychological distress. Among the main barriers of affordability, which include the lack of necessary funds that may be required for incidental or recurrent health issues. We found that in the same way as mental health did not stand as a predictor for an individual not having a usual source of primary care when any other factor is in play, what can be protective in low sick leave compensation is the fact that the person has paid sick leave. The results show that not only mental health patients have to bear the heavy medical problems, financial constraints are also affected by them strongly.

This article gains its credibility from being published by knowledgeable authors who have top notch education distinctions mainly PhDs and therefore their knowledge and experience is indisputable. The data acquired in this study will be very valuable to overcome mental health treatment access problems, as general healthcare obstacles are important for low-income Americans in their mental health treatments. In addition, the resource bases its key findings on affordability barriers, lack of usual source of care, and the restorative mechanism of workplace benefits in the strategy to improve the affordability and the availability of consistent access points.

Mongelli, F., Georgakopoulos, P., & Pato, M. T. (2020). Challenges and opportunities to meet the mental health needs of underserved and disenfranchised populations in the United States.  Focus,  18(1), 16-24.

This article covers the disparity in mental health service availability and quality in the United States, mainly for minority and disadvantaged groups. It analyzes some of the factors like limited insurance coverage, shortage of community-based interventions, unequal use of evidence-based approaches, prejudice, work force shortage, and inequitable distribution of service providers. Additionally, the essay explores the ways of dealing with those inequality, such as collaborative models of care, global mental health programs, telepsychiatry, and training of the mental health workforce.

As an academic publication in PubMed which is a reputable database, it is appropriate to cite it as a credible and relevant source for the topic on raising demand to mental health services. The article deals with the impediments of attaining mental health care like the low-income issue and a strategy for reducing disparities is in line with the essay topic. The article will insights into the specific barriers and the interventions such as collaborative care models and telepsychiatry that can be referred to while writing the topic’s challenges and possible solution.

Shidhaye, R. (2023). Global priorities for improving access to mental health services for adolescents in the post-pandemic world.  Current Opinion in Psychology, 101661.

The article focuses on the global imbalance of access to mental health services among adolescents - 70-80% of the population could not benefit of this service. The pandemic worsened the crisis by impeding the provision of healthcare and by adversely affecting the mental health of the youth. Providing school-based interventions and digital health technologies are proposed as the prospective solutions to improve the access to mental health care for adolescents, especially post-pandemic.

This is highly relevant to the topic of essay that specifically brings out details on strategies that advance the mental healthcare systems through shortening waiting queues, making services affordable, and reducing the levels of stigma emanating from the society in general. The topic of school-based programs and digital health applications should be incorporated into the essay’s main body in order to pave the way for possible solutions. The engagement of Global South studies can introduce the argument on bringing a balance by rectifying disparities across the globe.

Week 5: Solving a Problem in Your Community Preliminary Draft

This week, a preliminary draft of your Solving a Problem in Your Community Essay is due. It should be at least 750 words long, which is half the length of the completed essay that will be submitted in Week 7.

As you write, use the following sample outline as a mental model to help with the structure and organization of your work in progress. In addition, this week's discussion topic provides additional details on each element of the outline and will help you to get off to a strong start.

1. Introduction

· Hook

· Topic, its importance and relevance to readers

· Specific focus and purpose

· Thesis statement that previews the solution or solutions to the problem

2. Problem

· Causes and effects/impact

· History of what’s been done and its effectiveness

3. Potential solutions

· Option and its advantages/disadvantages

· Option and its advantages/disadvantages

4. Recommended solution

· Advantages and disadvantages

· Costs and Benefits

· Implementation steps and expected outcomes

5. Conclusion

· Synthesis/summary/significance and thesis

· Next steps

· Call to action

For this preliminary draft, it is expected that you will address at least the first three sections: the introduction, problem, and potential solutions. Provide in-text citations for at least three of the five sources you are planning to use. Include a references list for all sources used to this point.

Follow current APA guidelines for essay format, content, and citations. You should have a title page, references page, and section titles for each body section. Use this example as a template:  Student Essay Template.Links to an external site. Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader

Successful drafts will meet the following expectations.

· At least 750 words

· At least three academic, quality sources used and cited

· Current APA format, content, and citations

· Formatted as a Word document (.docx file)

· Submitted via the Week 5 assignment page

Essays will be evaluated using the following rubric.

Action

Select the Start Assignment button to begin.

Once you have uploaded your files, select Submit Assignment.

Rubric

Solving a Problem in Your Community Draft Rubric