What is Comprehensive Mental Health Care?
- Jacob Wisda
- 0
- on Feb 14, 2022
Why Comprehensive Mental Health Matters
Virtual care uses technology to revolutionize the way clinics offer treatment. As remote services grow, providers find new and exciting ways to care for their patients. While this started at primary care, telehealth expands into new fields every year. And one of its most important leaps has been toward comprehensive mental health care.
Telehealth and a patient’s mental wellbeing go hand in hand. Whether you need to manage prescriptions or offer talk therapy, telehealth makes treatment simple. But the best mental healthcare involves more than one specific approach. Every aspect of a patient’s life plays into their mental health and has to be taken into account.
You can’t boil comprehensive mental health care down to a single method. But for providers and patients who want to see the most improvement, there’s no substitute. That’s why Beam is here to outline comprehensive treatment’s most important elements. With telehealth, patients can access the mental healthcare they need before a crisis.
Comprehensive Mental Health and the Body
In the past, experts separated patients’ physical health from their mental health. But breakthroughs in psychology show that the two are closely related. Telehealth removes outdated barriers between different methods of treatment. And as a result, it forefronts the body’s role in a patient’s mental wellbeing.
Physical illnesses often have a psychological component. And predicting the mental outcomes of a bodily condition is difficult. Lifestyle changes brought about by illness may cause depression. At the same time, an intimidating diagnosis makes a client’s anxiety skyrocket.
At the end of the spectrum, psychological symptoms only get worse. Chronic pain and cancer patients can develop PTSD within months of their diagnoses [1]. So, to provide comprehensive mental health care, telehealth providers need to keep the whole body in mind. With or without a diagnosis on the horizon, this advice always holds true.
Prevention as Care
Comprehensive treatment has to do more than respond to problems as they arise. Preserving a patient’s mental wellbeing requires prevention. Telehealth clinics need to anticipate psychological problems after meeting with clients. Thankfully, there are several ways to stay ahead [2].
First, keep mental health in mind during every session. Even if your specialization isn’t in counseling, consider the stress caused by any illness. By keeping up to date on research and talking with psychologists at your practice, you’ll be able to consider every patients’ mental wellbeing. Telehealth is so useful because it makes this kind of collaboration easier.
Second, look for signs of drug abuse and addiction. Substance abuse has dramatically increased in the past few years [3]. At the same time, addiction stands in the way of comprehensive mental health care. So, providers need to track symptoms and look for signs of addiction before it can spiral out of control.
Finally, practices need to encourage counseling. The stigma surrounding mental illness bars many potential clients from treatment. And even for patients who don’t have a diagnosis, speaking with a therapist is beneficial for their mental wellbeing. Telehealth workers should recommend therapy and comprehensive mental health care to all their patients.
Crisis Counseling
Prevention and preparation go a long way in promoting the best treatment. But you can’t manage every possible condition in advance. When it comes to comprehensive treatment, telehealth clinics need to be ready for the worst. And more often than not, this means keeping crisis counselors at the ready.
Comprehensive health care means providing treatment when clients need it the most. Thankfully, telehealth makes spur-of-the-moment care possible. Within minutes, counselors can join a video call when a patient asks for them. This access to care vastly reduces the risk clients face at a time of crisis.
How clinics go about providing crisis counseling can vary. Some practices may opt to assign on-call teletherapy specialists. Others might pair clients up with their counselors and keep the door to contact open. Whichever path a provider chooses, this continued access to care ensures they have every mental health base covered.
Long Term Treatment
Comprehensive mental health care is never a short-term outcome. Even after dealing with a crisis, providers need to offer continued treatment. Because without long-term care, a patient’s mental health will suffer. Thankfully, there are plenty of reliable long-term treatment methods.
Anyone who’s experienced a mental health emergency may benefit from continued therapy. Depending on the problem they faced, you can adjust treatment methods the best help them. Whether this means cognitive behavioral treatment or standard talk therapy will vary. The point is, telehealth provides access to a valuable safety net.
Additionally, medication manages the symptoms of mental illness. Sometimes, mental health crises expose psychological conditions that can be treated. Telehealth allows for easy prescription management that makes dose adjustments over time simple. Whether psychological problems have a physical or mental source, the right medication can help.
Accounting for a patient’s comprehensive mental health is taxing. It takes expertise and resources some clinics may struggle to provide. But for that reason, Beam is here to help. Right now, we offer a free year of our all-in-one telehealth service to qualifying clinics. Click here to learn more.
Sources:
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm