If you have been reading my previous blogs on teaching the seriously mentally ill you may remember that up until the last few months I was employed as a front line mental health worker in a psychiatric rehabilitation facility. In my opinion our present mental health system is failing miserably in meeting the needs of those persons with severe and persistent psychiatric disabilities. I know that there will be people working in the present mental health system who will disagree with my statements and be offended by what I am writing in my blogs. These persons especially administrators and policy makers are entitled to their own opinions just as I am entitled to mine. With this in mind I will write down what I think needs to be said.
After thirteen years of working as a front line worker in the mental health field I have made several observations which I will share with you now. What follows is a list of these observations from my own experience and self initiated research:
1) The present mental health system is better designed to meet the needs of bureaucrats and administrators than it is the needs of the mental health consumers.
2) Although the new message is now empowerment for mental health consumers the practice is still too often "warehousing".
3) Different financial contributors to psychiatric rehabilitation programs often have conflicting agendas.
4) There is still too much of a "one size fits all approach" to mental health rehabilitation programs.
5) Government sponsored programs and private agencies consider their departmental budgets to be the first priority in program development for mental heath consumers.
6) There is an over reliance upon the use and efficacy of psychiatric medications as the major factor in psychiatric rehabilitation. As a result psychosocial rehabilitation models often take a back seat in treatment planning.
(to be continued)
After thirteen years of working as a front line worker in the mental health field I have made several observations which I will share with you now. What follows is a list of these observations from my own experience and self initiated research:
1) The present mental health system is better designed to meet the needs of bureaucrats and administrators than it is the needs of the mental health consumers.
2) Although the new message is now empowerment for mental health consumers the practice is still too often "warehousing".
3) Different financial contributors to psychiatric rehabilitation programs often have conflicting agendas.
4) There is still too much of a "one size fits all approach" to mental health rehabilitation programs.
5) Government sponsored programs and private agencies consider their departmental budgets to be the first priority in program development for mental heath consumers.
6) There is an over reliance upon the use and efficacy of psychiatric medications as the major factor in psychiatric rehabilitation. As a result psychosocial rehabilitation models often take a back seat in treatment planning.
(to be continued)
Comments
Post a Comment