Planning For Psychiatric Patient Movement Essay

Planning For Psychiatric Patient Movement Essay

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Planning For Psychiatric Patient Movement Essay

During a disaster scenario, there are many issues to consider when attempting to adequately prepare for the needs of patients who suffer from mental illness. Many of these patients are on medications to manage their illness and during a disaster may lose or run out of their medications potentially causing withdrawal symptoms as well as an exacerbation of their mental illness. One in a shelter, this population could have a more difficult time getting their medications replaced or adjusted because these patients may not want to disclose their mental illness to a health care provider in a shelter setting due to the stigma associated with mental illness. This population can take a long time to establish trust with a medical provider and may feel particularly disrupted by a change in providers.

Additionally, these patients are more likely than people who suffer from physical chronic diseases to not have received comprehensive and effective care for their disease even prior to the disaster. Throughout the country, mental health services are extremely underfunded making it difficult for patients to find an affordable mental health care provider. The disaster itself can worsen a person’s mental health conditions due to the tremendous stress and change in routine that are a part of the disaster experience. For example, a patient who had struggled with panic attacks and insomnia for many years may have found ways to control these anxiety symptoms, but may begin to experience panic attacks again during the disaster.

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Sometimes these patients can also cause an ethical conflict. Health care providers are required ethically to make decisions that uphold the ethic of bodily autonomy. But if the client becomes a threat to themselves or others their autonomy becomes superseded and they can become forcibly committed. Navigating finding a safe place to restrain or hold someone if they are a threat to themselves or others during a disaster where it may be difficult to reach a hospital.

In general, law enforcement officers and health care professionals are not well trained in managing people who may be having a PTSD flashback or a psychotic episode and these patients may be seriously injured or even killed when they actually need medical treatment. These patients are difficult to care for during a disaster because pervasive discrimination against people with mental illness means that this community is more likely to homeless, estranged from their family and in a more precarious position prior to the disaster. For all of these reasons it is extremely important that security officers and health care providers receive training on caring for this population prior to a disaster occurs.

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It is important to remember that people with mental illnesses also can offer a lot in disaster situations and need to not be further stigmatized. A person who has struggled with anxiety their whole life and has taught themselves breathing exercises to control that anxiety, could teach people in a shelter how to do exercises to calm their own anxiety. All members of our community can contribute to the health of the community during a disaster.

Sources

Nauert, R. (2012). Disaster Plans Should Include Those with Mental Illness. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/news/2011/05/24/disaster-…

US Department of Health and Social Services. (2018). Planning For Psychiatric Patient Movement During Emergencies and Disasters. Retrieved from https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/abc/Documents/psychiatric-patient-movement.pdf

US Department of Veteran Affairs. (2018). The Effects of Disaster on People with Severe Mental Illness. Retrieved from https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/trauma/disast…

Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. (2016). Addressing the Needs of the Seriously Mentally Ill in Disaster. Retrieved from https://www.cstsonline.org/assets/media/documents/CSTS_Seriously_Mentally_Ill.pdf

Planning For Psychiatric Patient Movement Essay

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