Policy Issues in Mental Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Policy Issues in Mental Health - Essay Example One such issue is the mental needs of baby boomers. This is because this generation of the American population offers a Unique challenge to the American medical system, in that the system is not adequately prepared to address the mental health needs of this demographic. This can, however, be remedied with the appropriate policy implementation to ensure that Medicare is in a position to adequately contain the mental health needs of the baby boomer generation. This is because the members of these demographic are likely to suffer from mental problems like depression leading to suicides, as they advance in age (MedlinePlus, 2009). Although mental health is being recognized as a health problem in America, the Medicare system needs policy implementations, ad hoc the needs of the baby boomer generations mental health needs. Background After the WW2, The demographic of the American population that comprised of young adults had a symbolic significance to the population as the face of optimism and the nations driving force. In the modern times, however, as this generation has advanced age wise, there has been growing concerns concerning their health. This is because there are fears that the health care system is inadequate to handle the mental needs of this generation, to ensure they live healthily. The society has been slow to recognize mental health as an illness, and this has made the field lag behind as compared to the other areas in mainstream healthcare. This shortfall has been made apparent by the challenges in mental healthcare for the baby boomers. The healthcare policies that have been introduced recently have highlighted the shortage in terms of carte providers of geriatric mental health cases. Statistics on the issue collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) depicted an increase in the suicide rates by 20%, among the age demographic of between 45 to 54 years, in the period between 1999 and 2005 (Conger, 2009). Though exploration into th e matter has not yielded a definite cause for this increase, the most logical hypothesis has been cited as being due to the depression affecting this demographic. Use of prescription drugs and hormone replacements to counter menopause have been proposed as possible causes (Chopvisky, 2011). Other experts have varied citing it simply portrayed the natural receding of the population numbers. White Women have a slightly higher increase than their male compatriots, with a figure of 3.9 percent increase being recorded. The increase in suicide rates was also evident across the board with minority groups also recording an upward trend in suicide cases. The complexity of the health needs with relation to their mental wellbeing is made critical by the actuality that this demographic comprises of 78 million individuals. The gravity of the situation is further reiterated with the fact that 10 million baby boomer are likely to suffer from Alzheimer cases. There are also indications that cases o f dementia have a strong prevalence among the group (Kapes, 2006). The society has tried to ensure that this generation lives comfortably, and there have been initiatives concerning this in various areas including social security and geriatric care, but there has been a shortcoming in