Bridging Mental Health and Public Health
The paper “Bridging Mental Health and Public Health ” is an outstanding example of an article on medical science. In an article Bridging Mental Health and Public Health Satcher and Druss discuss the incorporation of mental health into the broader array of public health programs. They detail how the Surgeon General’ s office recently released a report that called for the integration of mental health programs, as mental health disorders often result in costly effects on other areas of public health. The report included data from the 1990s which has been termed the ‘ decade of the brain’ .Bridging Mental Health and Public Health
This data included significant findings in the underlining causes of mental disorders, which resulted in an increase in treatment programs and specialty practices. The article states that in the subsequent decade, the results of the 1990s brain research were that whereas mental health treatment had previously been relegated to specialty care practice, it has gradually become a part of primary care. The article details surveillance practices and concludes that further research must be conducted to determine the extent to which mental health affects other aspects of health.
The article discusses the nature of ‘ recovery’ as a permanent state, wherein the patient is able to live a functional and fulfilling life. While the article concludes with a number of prescriptive factors that must still be met to achieve such integration, it’ s clear that the health community is moving in the right direction. It’ s interesting to consider the nature of mental health research in recent years, which has become almost entirely neurologically based, and wonder to what extent such a shift has caused its corresponding integration into primary care practice.
The article fails to mention the extent to which mental health care practices have been accepted, and whether traditional counseling approaches are being marginalized for more objectively ‘ valid’ biomedical treatments. Bridging Mental Health and Public Health