Mental health and substance abuse treatments take center stage while crafting a national or a state budget. The reason for this is the fact that over the years there has been an increase in mental health and substance abuse cases requiring more budgetary allocations. However, this has not been the case with the state of Washington which has a dilapidated mental health system demanding immediate redress. In this regard, it seems that the many citizens who have been rendered homeless due to use of opioids will continue to suffer. As per Westneat (2017), the case is worse in King County where 8 percent slashed the budgetary allocation. Dow Constantine, Kings County Executive, lamented on the decision to slash the allocation at a time the county is fighting a heroin epidemic. Cutting back on budgetary allocation offers no hope to mental health and substance abuse patients who rely on such state funding to get treatment (Mancuso, Nordlund, & Felver (2013). As it is, many people suffer from depression, schizophrenia and drug addiction on the streets and the only way to curb homelessness are to offer treatment for them. Therefore, a budget cut means that the nursing practitioners handling these patients will not have the required resources to manage them effectively.
Washington’s $43 billon budget was passed on 30 June 2017 in what many viewed as a quick and highly secretive process without consulting the major stakeholders. Governor Jay Inslee had requested for $ 300 million to cater for mental health system but only got $ 116 million which is not adequate. The reviewing of that budget contents was also done in a hasty manner meaning that its contents were not known until later. The team tasked with crafting this budget later claimed that its primary objective was to increase funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, but the contrary happened. The quick process of coming up with the budget did not help to fix the complexity related to mental health and substance abuse treatments. The speedy process happened in spite of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimations that by 2020 substance abuse and mental health illnesses will become one of the leading source of disability globally (Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, n.d). From such a budgetary process, it is clear that Washington State will continue to witness an increase in the number of patients without access to treatment. The nursing professionals can do little to help the situation but rather wait for the political class to make e necessary adjustments.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The lawmakers in drafting and passing the budget thought that Medicaid would come to the rescue of mental health and substance abuse patients. On the contrary, it was noted that in the end, the Legislature would end up spending less money on their treatment meaning that the patients will not get quality service. A thing to note here is that the impact of this budgetary cut is going to be felt by the local counselors and psychiatrists who handle the most considerable bulk of the addicts and homeless patients (Westneat, 2017). Consequently, many more patients will languish from mental illness which will complicate the work of the nursing practitioners significantly. In essence, more nurses will be required to offer care for the patients who will not be able to afford counseling services in the local mental health institutions.
Budgetary cuts on mental health and substance abuse do little to help an already ailing nation. According to Washington State Institute for Public Policy (2015), by 2013 Washington psychiatric institutions witnessed daily bed occupancy of about 80 % which exceeded the national average of 64 %. The statistics then represent a great need to have more funds channeled towards mental and substance abuse treatments more than ever. If then the legislators do the contrary by cutting the allocation it then means that this objective will not be met satisfactorily. There have been numerous calls in the past to make mental health a part of primary health care. Making mental health and substance abuse part of primary health care means that more nurse practitioners will be required to meet this objective (Theophilos, Green & Cashin, 2015). The nursing practitioners include occupational therapists, psychiatric nurses, family, and nurse practitioners among others. If then budgetary allocations are reduced then, the facilities will not afford to hire the practitioners, and thus the state will witness a health care crisis.
References
Mancuso, D., Nordlund, D. J. & Felver, B. E. M. (2013). The impact of substance abuse treatment funding reductions on health care costs for disabled Medicaid adults in Washington State. Washington Department of Social and Health Services . Retrieved on 30 January 2018, from https://www.dshs.wa.gov/sites/default/files/SESA/rda/documents/research-4-88.pdf.
Theophilos, T., Green, R. & Cashin, A. (2015). Nurse practitioner mental health care in the primary context: A Californian case study. Healthcare, 2015 (3), 1622-171.
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. (n.d). Substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion . Retrieved on 30 January 2018, from https://www.dshs.wa.gov/bha/division-behavioral-health-and-recovery/substance-abuse-prevention-and-mental-health-promotion.
Washington State Institute for Public Policy. (2015 ). Inpatient psychiatric capacity and utilization in Washington state. Retrieved on 30 January 2018, from http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1585/Wsipp_Inpatient-Psychiatric-Capacity-and-Utilization-in-Washington-State_Report.pdf.
Westneat, D. (2017). Washington State cut mental-health funding by mistake? One more reason open government matters. The Seattle Times, Retrieved on 30 January 2018, from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/why-open-government-matters-state-cut-mental-health-funding-by-mistake/.
