Mental Health and Children Term Paper

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Public Health Concepts for the Uninsured

Pediatrics is an area of study for Doctors of Nursing Practice that provides wide-ranging and extensive healthcare from the time of birth through the period of adolescence by evaluation, diagnosis, management and evaluation of care. A key healthcare problem faced in pediatrics is mental health problems amongst children and adolescents. In recent periods, the public health significance of mental health conditions amongst children and adolescents has been of progressively increasing concern. This prevalence of mental health issues in addition to their major influence on well-being and functioning indicates the necessity for early prevention (Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2008). Statistics indicate that just about one in five children across the world go through mental health issues. This encumbrance instigated by mental health problems may be progressively increasing. Several social changes have taken place in the 21st century that could have an adverse impact on mental health symptoms in prevailing generations of young individuals and give rise to an obstinate increase in mental health problem. Some of these aspects take into account changes in the family setting, parental mental health issues, the internet and social media, and also high rates of single parenting (Bor et al., 2014).

Literature Review

Costello et al. (2003) undertook a longitudinal community study that examined the prevalence and development of mental disorders from 9 to 16 years of age and assessed homotypic and heterotypic permanency. A representative population sample of 1420 children between the ages of 9 to 13 years from the outset were examined every year for DSM-IV disorders up until the time they reach 16 years of age. Outcomes of the study indicated that in the course of the research study period, 36.7% of the participants, which consisted of 31% of girls and 42% of boys, had at least 1 mental disorder. Despite the fact that there has never been a characteristic population survey of child mental disorders, numerous research studies have been undertaken and an agreement been attained that any given time 1 child in 5 children will have a mental disorder (Costello et al., 2003).

Reiss (2013) further goes on to link mental health problems amongst children and adolescents to socioeconomic inequalities. The research study methodically assesses publications on the correlations between different commonly used indicators of socioeconomic status and mental health results for children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 18 years. Outcomes of the study indicated that children and adolescents that are socioeconomically disadvantaged had a two to three greater probability to develop mental health problems. Moreover, low socioeconomic status that prolonged over a lengthy time period was significantly correlated to higher rates of mental health problems. A decline in socioeconomic status was linked to a progressive rise in mental health issues. The magnitude of this relationship fluctuated with age and with various signs of socioeconomic status, while on the other hand heterogeneous results were reported for gender and kinds of mental health issues (Reiss, 2013).

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Description of the Case and Situation

The situation at hand encompasses the worrying aspect of the progressively increasing mental health issues amongst children and adolescents. According to Parens and Johnston (2008), 1 in 10 children and adolescents in America every year have major and substantial functional impairments owing to a mental health disorder. These tendencies and developments have instigated worry and concern that mental health disorders are being excessively diagnosed and that psychotropic medications are being overworked in children. In particular, the behaviors ascertained as indicators of psychological health disorders are delineated to various magnitudes in all children. Moreover, recent studies indicate that most of the mental disorders begin in children and adolescents prior to them attaining the age of 14 years. In these cases, the studies indicated that biological aspects, for instance, genetics and also chemistry within the brain, together with environmental factors, like style of parenting and stress altogether have a role to play in mood and behavior of such children and adolescents (Parens and Johnston, 2008). Bearing this in mind, the increasing concern is the lack of doctors that can offer proper treatment and healthcare to mental health patients in a timely and efficient manner.

Summary of the Case

In summary, there has been increased concern with regard to mental health care. Statistics indicate that 20% of children and adolescents experience mental health problems. This is a progressively worrying issue being faced by DNPs in pediatrics. Moreover, this becomes a major problem for the reason that failure to obtain proper treatment implies that such medical conditions end up harming the welfare of individuals even to their adulthood. In the present day, not only do these children and adolescents lack comprehensive insurance to cater for their medical treatments, they also face the issue of lack of sufficient healthcare. There is a lack of adequate professionals that can provide medical treatment to the more than 15 million young children and adolescents that necessitate medical treatment (Luthra, 2016). In accordance to Burns et al. (2004), presently more than 43 million adults in the United States suffer from some kind of mental health problem, and this figure is progressively increasing. Averagely, approximately 9.8 million adults suffer from a severe mental health problem. The upside to the legislation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made it possible to attain access to mental care. Nonetheless, several mental health patients lack proper treatment despite the fact that efficacious treatments are present.

Proposed solutions to remedy gaps, inefficiencies, or other issues from a theoretical approach

There are various proposed solutions to dealing with the mental health issues amongst children and adolescents from a theoretical approach. In summary, every year, approximately one in five children suffers a mental illness. However, a deficiency in medical experts and inpatient facilities across the nations implies that several.....

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