Summary: The Mental Health Care Revolution

Secondly, a monumental impact of the Mental Health Care Revolution is an increase in the accessibility of health care for mental health patients. One of the reasons of this dramatic increase is a new idea that is gaining popularity called telepsychiatry, or telehealth. Simply put, telepsychiatry using technology, often video calling services, to increase the range of area that psychiatric services are offered in. The usage of telepsychiatry has been advertised as a way to increase access to mental health care, increase the quality of care, increase community based services, and as a tool to combine psychiatric services with primary care. These efforts have been largely successful. This is because they have provided a larger receiving ground …show more content…
One of the reasons for this is the PACT model which is in effect in Dane County, Wisconsin. This model was defined as means to transition mental health patients from a mental health institute to the community with the hopes that they could learn and adapt to life as normal citizens in society. The basic idea of PACT is that 100-200 mental patients are under the 24/7 care of 5-15 mental health professionals. One of these professionals is always available for any emergency. By giving this amount of space to the patients, they are able to learn how to function without constantly being monitored. This leads to an increased sense of responsibility and self. In addition, the PACT program has shown an increase of compliance to taking medication, a decrease in rehospitalization and substance abuse, and the number of violent episodes of patients being cut in half. The PACT program also uses conditional release, a program in which patients are released early with good behavior, the promise to take their medication, and the knowledge that not complying with the guidelines will land them back in the hospital. This increases the humanity of the patients because it allows them to have goals and feel like they are able to begin to take care of themselves. Another important factor that has led to the increase of humanity for mental health patients is HIPPA. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a huge step towards treating mental health patients more humanely because it makes their health records much more accessible to them and also prohibits doctors from sharing personal information about the patients without their written consent. By easily being allowed to have their own records, patients are able to feel more in control of their care instead of just feeling that they are being shuffled through the system