Mental illness is a health issue whose attack is not on the body but the mind, in recent years mental illness has become an acceptable topic to discuss while in the past, having a mental illness meant suffering alone and in silence. The number of people screening with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety has continued to increase throughout 2020 and remains higher than rates prior
NURS 6050 Discussion Presidential Agendas SAMPLE
to COVID-19 (Mental Health America , 2021). People are suffering and they are finally speaking out about it and I will say that is a testament to how our Presidents have highlighted the importance of speaking out about your mental illness and getting the help that you need and providing that help. In 2013 President Obama announced that $50 million of the funding will support nearly 200 community health centers in expanding the availability of services to individuals living with mental illness and/or substance use disorders (Ingoglia, 2013). The Biden administration followed that same initiative when he took office and allocated 2.5 Billion dollars in funding for the mental illness and addiction crisis the country now faces; $1.65 billion will go toward the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which gives the receiving states and territories money to improve already-existing treatment, and $825 million will be used by the states to deal specifically with mental health treatment services (Allen, 2021).
This nurse is an advocate for mental well-being, and believes that in order to heal the body you have to start with the mind. We learned early on in nursing school that the brain is the control station for every part of our body and in order for our different systems to complete their distinct tasks the brain must function properly. NURS 6050 Discussion Presidential Agendas SAMPLE Our thought processes affect how our brain works, neuroscience has begun to uncover some of the intricate and less obvious relations between the mind and the brain, as investigative approaches from biochemistry, psychology, and genetics converge on an understanding of the physiology of mental illness (S., 1992). As a psych nurse I believe that they did the same thing that I would have done because the issue is that there are not enough mental health providers and so you have people suffering that are unable to get the help they need because providers are booked to capacity. The one thing that I would do differently is ensure that each state send yearly summaries of exactly how they are putting that money to use, and the effectiveness of the changes they made using that money. This is purely to hold each state accountable and ensure the money is being distributed to bringing a firm foundation for the treatment of mental illness.
Also Check Out: Assignment: NURS 6521 Asthma and Stepwise Management
References:
Allen, M. (2021, March 11). Exclusive: Biden directing $2.5B to address mental health and addiction crisis.Retrieved from AXIOS: https://www.axios.com/biden-funding-drug-mental-health-crisis-310d0250-cb6e-409c-8f30-9d73c3fd94a7.html
Ingoglia, C. (2013, December 11). Obama Administration Announces $100 Million in Mental Health Funding.Retrieved from National Council fot Mental Wellbeing : https://www.thenationalcouncil.org
Mental Health America . (2021). The State Of Mental Health In America. Retrieved from Mental Health America : https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america
S., A. (1992). The Role of the Brain in Mental Illness. Retrieved from National Academies Press (US): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234144/
COVID-19
A novel coronavirus hit the U.S. in January 2020, and WHO declared coronavirus a pandemic (Sheposh, 2021). A new strain called Delta surfaced, and the death toll is once again increasing. When the pandemic began, there was a lot of confusion about how to handle the pandemic. Former President Trump first put the responsibility on states to deal with covid-19. As the case number increased, The White House created federal social distancing guidelines. At the same time, the COVID task force was formed with people of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)- NURS 6050 Discussion Presidential Agendas SAMPLE. President Trump declared a national emergency and ordered expanded supplies and test kits to be distributed in the U.S. The president was eager to reopen the company and return to normalcy. He signed the bill to help people for relief and put an emphasis on developing covid vaccines. He also decided not to fund the WHO and criticized the covid task force for their recommendations (Hart, 2021).
President Biden put the primary responsibility on the federal government and called for states to put more strict mask mandates in place. He signed the bills for more stimulus checks and called for swift distributions on vaccines. He decided to rejoin the WHO and promised the funding. He also called for a controversial vaccine mandate for federal workers.
No one predicted that this pandemic could happen in their lifetime. However, I feel the government has done a great job against this pandemic. Covid-19 is still ongoing, and new strains are being discovered. However, things are settling down, and I feel that life is returning to normal. During this pandemic, the federal government set a goal to innoculate people as much as possible and set an agenda to do so. I cannot entirely agree with the mandate of vaccines because I think that it is a violation of our rights. I’m afraid I also have to disagree with funding the WHO. I feel that Johns Hopkins University and CDC give us better statistics and accurate numbers, and also they function way better than WHO.
NURS 6050 Discussion Presidential Agendas SAMPLE References
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). By: Sheposh, Richard, Salem Press Encyclopedia of
Health, 2021
Hart, J. (2021). Did the COVID-19 pandemic help or hurt Donald Trump’s political fortunes? PLoS ONE, 16(2), 1–10. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247664
In my opinion, the Federal Government of the United States, ably led by President Joe Biden, made the right decision by ensuring that the majority of its population receives the covid -19 vaccine, based on the CDC recommendations. The science behind this approach is based on the age long principle of Herd immunity.
Herd immunity(population immunity) , is the direct/indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when about 75 to 80% of a population is immunized either through vaccination as in the case of Covid -19 or by immunity developed through previous infection (WHO, 2021). As we may have known, vaccines stimulate specific antibodies in our bodies that help with fighting specific infections whenever we come in contact with them. Usually, these vaccines are made to protect us against infections or organisms with very high pathogenicity or virulence, sufficient to overwhelm ones natural immunity upon first exposure , thus leading to very severe illness or even death. The fortified immune system is able to attack such organisms whenever that vaccinated individual becomes exposed to the organism. However, for the unvaccinated individual, a highly virulent pathogen like the novel coronavirus is able to attack and cause severe debilitating illness or even death, because the natural immune system is too weak to fight back. As a consequence, vaccines have become inextricably connected to our survival as humans.
As regards human rights, I believe the President has a constitutional obligation to protect the lives and property of all inhabitants of the United States. This, he is doing, by taking relevant steps at encouraging people to take the vaccines. Consequently, whatever he has to do to keep the people safe and in good health should not be regarded or seen as against peoples’ rights, as he can only be president over the living and not the dead. Interestingly too, our rights are not absolute under the law, if not, you could kill somebody and walk away without retribution. NURS 6050 Discussion Presidential Agendas SAMPLE
In the aspect of the US withdrawal from the WHO, the United States remains the leader of all developed nations of the world, and arguably the largest financial contributor to the WHO. As such, it has a responsibility to keep all other nations safe from disease or infirmity even as it takes care of itself. The WHO serves as a reference point in the area of Healthcare for every nation of the world. All countries make monthly contributions to this agency, for the purpose of having a collective and formidable front against diseases that affect humanity as well as drawing up universally acceptable management guidelines, which are usually sourced from medical experts all over the world. An epidemic, in any part of the world is not likely to completely isolate the US, so long as movement of humans continue to take place, just as was the case with covid -19. Even though Johns Hopkins has been doing a great job, its scope is largely limited to the US, while the WHO is global .
In conclusion, President Joe Biden, has so far shown impeccable leadership in his approach to managing the affairs of the US, especially rejoining the WHO and his strategies on vaccination.
Bernal, J. L., Andrews, N., Gower, C., Gallagher, E., Simmons, R., Thelwall, S., Stowe, J., Tessier, E., Groves, N., Dabrera, G., Myers, R., Campbell, C., Amirthalingam, G., Edmunds, M., Zambon, M., Brown, K., Hopkins, S., Chand, M., & Ramsay, M. (2021). Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the B.1.617.2 variant. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257658
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Herd immunity, lockdowns and COVID-19. (n.d.). WHO | World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (2021, August 6). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-variant.html
Discussion: Presidential Agendas
Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen has a stake in healthcare policy decisions. Hence, it is little wonder why healthcare items become such high-profile components of presidential agendas. It is also little wonder why they become such hotly debated agenda items.
Consider a topic that rises to the presidential level. How did each of the presidents (Trump, Obama, and Bush) handle the problem? What would you do differently?
To Prepare:
- Review the Resources and reflect on the importance of agenda setting.
- Consider how federal agendas promote healthcare issues and how these healthcare issues become agenda priorities.
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post your response to the discussion question: Consider a topic that rises to the presidential level. How did each of the presidents (Trump, Obama, and Bush) handle the problem? What would you do differently?
By Day 6 of Week 1
Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days by expanding on their response and providing an example that supports their explanation or respectfully challenging their explanation and providing an example.
Each year in the U.S., millions of people are affected by mental illness. The CDC reports that 50% of Americans will at one time in their life be diagnosed with a mental disorder (CDC, 2019). As nurses, we must understand the physical, social and financial impact mental health has on our nation. We must raise awareness, reduce the negative stigma, and advocate for better health care.
I focused my post on mental health care because it is my nursing specialty. After reviewing what the last three presidents have accomplished, I was surprised and pleased with president Bush’s and Obama’s attempts to address mental health; however, I was disappointed in President Trump’s apparent lack of support.
In 2002 President Bush created the New Freedom Commission Act, which would improve mental health services for children, adolescents, and adults by coordinating treatments and services to promote their successful integration into the community (President`s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2019). His support for mental health didn’t stop there. Throughout his presidency, he continued to make positive changes for those living with mental illness. In his final year as president, he signed an act establishing health insurance coverage for people with mental health disorders, seeing it as just as important as physical health (Hart, 2016). Two years later, under the Obama administration, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, much like Bush, demonstrating that mental health is as important as physical health. In 2016, the president proposed a budget that included a new $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care (Hart, 2016). As stated above, both Presidents acknowledged mental health and the importance of treating it as equal to physical health. Conversely, during his time in office, President Trump advocated for the reduction in Medicaid funding to each state, which directly impacted the mental health services to the aged and disabled who qualified under this program (The Trump Administration and Mental Health, 2018).
If I were to do anything different, I would have built on the legacy of Bush and Obama to increase awareness, policies, and funds to address mental health. Mental health issues are not going away, and decreasing funding for programs that meet the needs of the mentally ill is a step in the wrong direction.
References
Data and Publications – Mental Health – CDC. (2019). CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/data_publications/index.htm
Hart, J. (2016). How Presidents Have Shaped Mental Health Care | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. Nami.org. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/February-2016/How-Presidents-Have-Shaped-Mental-Health-Care
President`s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. (2019). Unt.edu. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/mentalhealthcommission/
The Trump Administration and Mental Health – The Gooden Center. (2018, May). The Gooden Center. https://www.goodencenter.org/trump-administration-mental-health/
This is insightful; decision-making processes in the healthcare system often involve different stakeholders. As a result, different stakeholders often have different approaches or suggestions about the healthcare procedures and what needs to be undertaken to enhance effective patient outcomes. Mental health is one of the healthcare problems that has led to the increased legislation in the United States. As a result, different presidents have responded differently to the problem of mental health.
The nurse needs to understand both the legal and medical aspects of the healthcare process. They need to understand different approaches that have been undertaken by different legislatures, political, leaders, and presidents to reduce the cases associated with specific health conditions, in this case, mental health (Mechanic & Olfson, 2016). Mental health problem in the United States was handled differently by the previous presidents, Barrack Obama, George Bush, and Donald Trump. However, they all focused on ensuring the improvement in the mental health problems among the population. President Obama passed Affordable Care policy that catered for different patients at different levels, including those suffering from mental health problems. In other words, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, much like Bush, demonstrating that mental health is as important as physical health.
On the other hand, President Bush created the New Freedom Commission Act, which would improve mental health services for children, adolescents, and adults by coordinating treatments and services to promote their successful integration into the community (Robertson-Preidler et al., 2020). On the other hand, Trump advocated for the reduction in Medicaid funding to each state, which directly impacted the mental health services to the aged and disabled who qualified under this program. The efforts by the three presidents have led to a significant reduction in the cases of mental health problems in the United States.
References
Mechanic, D., & Olfson, M. (2016). The relevance of the Affordable Care Act for improving mental health care. Annual review of clinical psychology, 12, 515-542. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-092936
Robertson-Preidler, J., Trachsel, M., Johnson, T., & Biller-Andorno, N. (2020). The Affordable Care Act and recent reforms: Policy implications for equitable mental health care delivery. Health Care Analysis, 28(3), 228-248. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10728-020-00391-0