A Review of California Statewide Mental Health Prevention Programs
A Review of California Statewide Mental Health Prevention Programs
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A Review of California statewide mental health prevention programs
Following recommendations by the substance abuse and mental health services administration in a publication by Eberhart et al. (2017) that a comprehensive approach is required to prevent and intervene in mental health programs, the state of California implemented a Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) program to promote mental health and reduce the risk of associated mental health disorder. The state implemented various economic and administrative support for mental health service delivery through this program. The state adopted a work plan through the program to attain the following goals. First, reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental health. Second, to improve suicide prevention. Third, to improve student mental health. Under these objectives, the following organizations serve as partners. These included community organizations, private firms, the public K-12 association, and the higher education systems. The program's success was measured based on an overall reduction in stigma and discrimination cases based on mental health. The focus was on reducing suicide cases due to mental disorders. And overall, there was an improvement in mental health among students (Eberhart et al., 2017). Among the key contributing factors that would be assessed is the level of training and awareness created across the state and among the students to improve their mental well-being.
Since the interventions were being conducted across different target groups and were randomized, the reviewing team conducted random surveys across the state and various institutions to determine how many people had been impacted by the program. Among school trainers, the reviewing survey found that at least 1 in five teachers participated in training to equip them with skills to handle mental health issues among students. Among the different races interviewed, the reviewing team found that most of the people who participated in these training were Asian Americans, also given that they recorded the highest group that experienced stigmatization towards individuals with mental illnesses. Although the program's objectives can only be realized in the long run, in the short run, it was able to attain some of the set goals that would help it achieve its long-term objective through the program. The review found strong evidence that anyone who could benefit from the program did benefit. For instance, in evaluating the K-12 and partner programs, the evaluation found increased traffic on the training websites, implying that the number of people who visited the sites to learn how to manage mental health had increased. Additionally, the program found that widespread adoption of community training had improved students' mental health in addition to causing policy-making and implementation around mental health.
The program policy review was conducted within six months after the program was initiated. The policy evaluation was performed using surveys launched to students and department heads of the various institutions where the policy was implemented. Also, the reviews were conducted on communication tools such as websites that could track people's participation in the program. Like in studies by Mazhar (2021), the program collected primary data through these data collection tools to assess the program's impact. Through surveys, the reviewers collected preliminary data on how the program assisted people in overcoming mental health challenges such as discrimination. The main challenge that the program observed was that it was impossible to derive long-term results in the short run by the time the review was conducted. Empirical evidence would be observed in the long term, requiring constant reviews in the short run. The collaboration among the various college institutions was managed through the California Department of Education.
Heckert et al. (2020) identified the role and contribution of stakeholders in their work in community projects. Likewise, the program had many stakeholders; however, the majority of the stakeholders were the education institutions such as colleges and universities where the survey and program implementation were conducted. The RAND Corporation was used to select, design and implement the program. They were also involved in the evaluation of the program. The California mental health services authority would benefit so much from the results obtained in this review.
Additionally, the organization would benefit immensely since it will have achieved some of the goals that necessitated its establishment, which include providing administrative and economic mental health support and service delivery. Among students, the program created awareness; thus, it delivered one of its primary goals: creating awareness. The program met its social intent, which was the creation of awareness. However, the program was able to deliver on its short-term goals but not on the long-term goal, which is to see the empirical evidence of the intervention. I would recommend adopting this policy program at work because of the awareness created by the program. Nurses can be involved in the program through community mobilization and awareness. Most of the time, the program's desired impact has been creating awareness through which the program has targeted one group of the community: students. However, owing to the discrimination people face in society, nurses can be the best alternative to help propel the awareness agenda since their profession does not discriminate against people. At the same time, people who focus on driving community impact can engage nurses since they interact with people from various diversities (Gabrielsson et al., 2020). Nurses can also be used to promote the agenda by offering recommendations for people with mental health to visit the institutions' website, where they can get more information on how they can be assisted to cope with their problems.
References
Eberhart, N., Burnam, M., Berry, S., Collins, R., Ebener, P., Ramchand, R., Stein, B., & Woodbridge, M. (2017). Evaluation of California's Statewide Mental Health Prevention and early intervention programs: Summary of key year two findings. Journal of Medical Health. https://doi.org/10.7249/rr971
Gabrielsson, S., Tuvesson, H., Wiklund Gustin, L., & Jormfeldt, H. (2020). Positioning psychiatric and mental health nursing as a transformative force in health care. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 41(11), 976–984. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2020.1756009
Heckert, A., Forsythe, L. P., Carman, K. L., Frank, L., Hemphill, R., Elstad, E. A., Esmail, L., & Lesch, J. K. (2020). Researchers, patients, and other stakeholders' perspectives on challenges to and strategies for Engagement. Research Involvement and Engagement, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-020-00227-0
Mazhar, S. A. (2021). Methods of data collection: A fundamental tool of research. Journal of Integrated Community Health, 10(01), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.24321/2319.9113.202101
