Mental Health Service Delivery and Philosophy System

Question: Discuss about the Mental Health Service Delivery and Philosophy System. Answer: Introduction: According to the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry(2015), the pre- deinstitutionalization and the introduction of the recovery framework in Australia have changed the mental health service delivery and philosophy. Deinstitutionalization is considered as a way to counter the effects of the former system which was institutionalization. It involves downsizing large psychiatric hospitals and shifting to alternative services in the community that ensure the interaction of the patients, their families, and their support systems. The recovery framework focuses more on ensuring the recovery of the patient and not just rehabilitating them. The paper seeks to address some of the effects that deinstitutionalization and the introduction of recovery framework have on the health of people with mental illness and on the consumer experience. Prior to deinstitutionalization, asylums were mainly used to treat and care for patients who had severe mental illness. These asylums were institutionalized settings whereby the patients were closed from the rest of society and had very limited access to the outside world. The patients engaged in scheduled activities that were closely monitored by the caretakers in these institutions. Their activities were organized in a series that was enforced by the officials and their lives were completely controlled by the institutional role. Therefore, with the use of asylums, patients with mental illness can receive treatment to enable them to live a better life (Allott, Loganathan Fulford, 2012). The recovery framework provides an important policy direction on the way to enhance mental health services delivery in Australia. The framework encompasses a range of approaches that guide those employed in the mental health service system towards a recovery-oriented practice and service delivery. It provides guidance on ensuring the recovery-oriented approaches are tailored towards responding to the diverse mental illness the patients have. The system provides services that ensure psychiatric treatment and recovery support for those with mental illness, their families, and their support networks. The recovery framework has received support from people who have lived with mental illness, their families, friends, and the non-governmental community health sector (Davies, Maggs Lewis, 2013). This support has facilitated the implementation of the framework in the Australian mental health services. The policies that have been put in place by the government ensure that priority is given t o the implementation of the framework. In this case, the government should formulate policies that will help mentally ill patients receive treatment in health services (Warburton, Baker, Kendall Crompton, 2016). Deinstitutionalization and introduction of the recovery framework have impacts on the health of people with mental illness and on the consumer experience. First, this provides the patient with a social role since they are able to interact with their friends and families within their communities. These patients no longer need to be confined in psychiatric hospitals since they can be given drugs or undergo therapy while they continue having the freedom of a normal social life. This freedom facilitates their recovery since they have a support system that ensures their recovery. Secondly; deinstitutionalization also prevents the patient from feeling stigmatized because of their mental illness. This system gives the patient an opportunity to interact with others within their community in a normal way that does not make them feel like they are so different from the other individuals in society. This also facilitates the recovery of the patients while reducing the possibility of them developing more mental health problems. Institutionalized patients have a tendency to develop institutional syndrome which makes these patients deficient in social and life skills. individuals who are institutionalized are more likely to develop more mental health problems. Deinstitutionalization and the recovery framework facilitate the recovery of an individual in a supportive environment that involves family, friends, and the community who have a huge role to play in an individuals recovery (Kliewer, Melissa Trippany, 2015). The recovery framework ensures that the patient is not only rehabilitated but also taken through medical processes that facilitate their recovery. Therefore, the recovery framework to be given to these patients should focus on stabilizing their condition in order tom live a healthy productive life. Despite the positive effects deinstitutionalization has had on mental health patients and their families, there are also some shortcomings of the same. This has led to some patients being homeless due to limited community-based care. These patients lack the required attention they need as they go about their daily activities since they do not have friends or family members who are willing to be their custodians throughout the day (Sanbrook Harris, 2013). Some of these patients end up homeless because their families may be unwilling to take care of them. This makes them feel unwanted and unappreciated hence they end leaving their homes and ending up in the streets because they also lack the right judgment to properly manage their lives on their own without the social support. Therefore, people with mental illness require support from family to reduce the suffering most of them go through (Ralph, 2013). In terms of consumer experience, deinstitutionalization and the recovery framework has been beneficial to the mental health patients and even to their families and the community. The recovery framework has a clear approach on how to handle the different mental illnesses in unique ways that ensure recovery (McGorry et al. 2015). The patients and their caretakers are given a clear outline on how to handle the specific mental illness and the patients are also able to receive adequate support from their support group since they are not confined and closed off from the social life (Marynowski-Traczyk, 2015). In conclusion, deinstitutionalization and the introduction of recovery framework have a massive effect on the health of people with mental illness and on the consumer experience. In as much as deinstitutionalization has become prominent, it might not be suitable for patients with acute mental illness and the ones who lack support. 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