NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 2 Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal

Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal

Student name

Capella University

NURS FPX6026

Professor Name

Submission Date

Introduction

One of the most troublesome issues for poor black Americans in the city is depression. Meanwhile, it is the type of problem that nobody is well-informed about, yet it is a common disease of depression. It is important to mention that the population under discussion is prone to numerous stress-related challenges that can be connected to poverty, being exposed to violent actions in their surroundings all the time, racial discrimination, and numerous other aspects (Crooks et al., 2023).

Different programs and projects are focused on giving the required help to individuals experiencing this issue. Nevertheless, the presence of some significant barriers like traditional types of racism within the healthcare sector, poverty, insurance deficiency, and health-related services fragmentation stands in the way of people accessing the appropriate medical help (Abubakar et al., 2022). The bulk of the paper is to present a brief of a theoretical framework that could be used as a foundation to develop sustainable solutions.

Proposed Policy and Guidelines for Improved Outcomes and Quality of Care

To address these obstacles and ameliorate the situation, the proposed policy offers to create and establish the Equitable Mental Health Access Policy (EMHAP). It inevitably involves a multisectorial intervention where different stakeholders are collaboratively involved to tackle the challenges related to the mental issues of low-income adolescent Black patients with a depressive disorder living in the urban area and aged between 12 and 18 years of age (Wood et al., 2023).

The idea that the proposed policy is grounded in is connected to popular national policies. Based on them, all teenagers are to undergo a screening relating to any mental health issues, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). It implies that to ensure the proposed policy works correctly, one will be required to find effective and viable solutions in surmounting many challenges that the population in question is exposed to.

Guidelines

There are five clear and precise policies that are included in EMHAP. Everyone between the 12-18 years of age should receive yearly screening for signs of depression through PHQ-A screening at the office of their doctor and at the school quarters. There should be at least one trained mental health professional who is able to assist students in each high school where at least 30 out of 100 students are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals in schools (Cadenhead et al., 2022).

In addition, it is crucial for those youth who have a barrier to accessing mental health professionals due to either the lack of means of transportation or being unable to receive video consultation within 5 days. Moreover, physicians and educators are to attend monthly cultural competence and effects of racism on mental health seminars.

Potential Difficulties and How to Address Them

There are many issues connected with carrying out this policy which should be addressed appropriately. This combination of inadequate mental healthcare workers and the reality that a big portion of them are excessively tired and nervous postpones offering care to the teens with mental issues (Doody et al., 2021). The community considers mental illness to be shameful. One such factor is the mentality of the parents; why people would not seek help in case their teenager is having a mental disorder. To eliminate this issue, the study asserts that as long as money is available to educate mental health practitioners, then it is enough.

Advocating the Need for the Proposed Policy

The current system’s functioning clearly indicates its inefficiency when issues dealing with the needs of African American teens and those from the poorer classes arise. According to the statistics explained in the study, it is possible to state that the degree of depression in these teens is rather high. But African American teens, in contrast to the poor white teens, are quite hesitant in seeking methods of resolving their mental issues (Parker et al., 2022). Unless efforts are put in place in trying to assist these teens, they will end up facing dire consequences.

According to the data and evidence collected in the study, 46% of black teens above the age of 16 suffer from an increase in stress and the damage it causes due to the experience of racial discrimination in comparison to other ethnic groups (Elisha & Collins, 2022). That is why failure to develop an overall plan on how to tackle this issue can also be seen to be permitting inequality to exist. The role of EMHAP is to overcome this problem by means of implementing mental health screening of all people and offering telehealth services.

Certain specialists and practitioners believe that screening contributes to the depression of adolescents, as it cannot be effectively tackled by screening all adolescents. Analysts posit that even with inadequate levels of treatment services, universal screening becomes useless since it only reveals teenagers who are struggling, yet it does not specifically benefit them (Burns & Rapee, 2021). Along with this issue of the insufficiency of treatment services for teenagers with depression, there are grave concerns of confidentiality and privacy.

It also involves seeking parental approval for intervention for those teenagers who require their condition to be enhanced. In order to address the issue of depression among teenagers, most of the studies exploring the use of team-based care in addressing the issue have studied teenagers who resemble the average characteristics (Stadnick et al., 2024). This means that there are very limited studies that have taken into account the experiences of Black teenagers raised in poor families. EMHAP has been well developed to the point that it offers an all-round solution to all of the above critical issues simultaneously.

Interdisciplinary Approach to Policy Implementation

Individual organizations or individuals alone do not have an opportunity to overcome all the issues that relate to depression in poor black adolescents. That is the reason why EMHAP was created based on the team approach of integrating people of varying disciplines into a team. Different experts taking part in the interdisciplinary partnership include nurse practitioners, psychologists, and school nurses, each having their own expertise (Goldberg et al., 2023).

In the medical sphere, a nurse practitioner attends to patients and delivers competent medical care to them, whereas a psychologist must cope with more complicated problems that demand extra efforts. Social workers address issues within a community, whereas teachers help to develop techniques for resolving the issues of students that have most likely been caused by traumatic events.

Knowledge Gaps and Areas of Uncertainty

Although the proof of this methodology and rationale is very strong, there are several major challenges which need to be considered in future research. Foremost, few studies track the effectiveness of programs created for the benefit of the specific needs of the underprivileged African American population suffering from mental illness and how cultural background affects the results of such programs (Goldberg et al., 2023). Also, very few articles take into account the race and socioeconomic status of the population being studied when conducting the research.

Next Assessment:  NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 3