Post-Disaster Lack of Mental Health Care in Rural Areas of Tunisia (Essay Sample)

Post-Disaster Lack of Mental Health Care in Rural Areas of Tunisia
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Post-Disaster Lack of Mental Health Care in Rural Areas of Tunisia
Introduction
Like any other developing country, Tunisia has continuously faced inadequate mental health care after disaster. Since there is no separate budget for the issue, it is difficult to determine the level of financing by the government. There are approximately 3600 primary health care units in the nation, 200 beds per 100,000 people, and 134 doctors per 100,000 people. This has presented a major concern in addressing various health care issues in times of disaster considering the country’s population of about 10 million. There is therefore a need to create a quality improvement plan that can be used by any developing nation to address the issue of inadequacy in mental health care in Tunisia. This paper is focuses on the creation of a better mental health care through longer term reforms.
Literature Review
Mental, neurological and substance use disorders are greatly common in middle and low income countries. However, there is a greater global gap between the need for services and their availability. Roxanne & Dua (2018) conducted through an up to date systematic review of the execution and evaluation of the mental health gap programme in these countries. The studies reported 15 training courses, nine clinical executions, three nation contextualization, three economic systems, and two control interventions. This revealed the significance of comprehensive reports of contextual problems in these areas, comprehensive protocols and qualitative studies.
There is a great challenge in the establishment of a concrete system in mental care to both impatient and outpatient services. A study by Karam & Rabih (2016) in Lebanon revealed the implementation of various interventions to solve the problem of inadequate mental health care. These included integrating mental health into major healthcare, developing mental health groups within the community, and training health providers in interpersonal psychotherapy.
There is need for the utilization of ICT in provision of all healthcare services. This study by Shilpa & Pant (2015) reviewed and analyzed the use of four technologies including cables, internet, mobile and cloud in the provision of services. The study found that ICT provides services despite geographical limitations in a cost effective way. Therefore, it can be used to solve the issue of inadequate mental healthcare.
Conflicts or disasters lead to displacements as well as psychological traumatization to the victims which lead to need for professional mental attention. A study by Moustafa (2015) attempted to offer a framework to understand the problems faced in provision of mental healthcare to refugees in Syria, as well as a pilot tele psychiatry evaluation in Kilis Province. The research found that refugee overpopulation due to disaster led to stressing the already strained health care infrastructure. This was also associated with inadequate mental healthcare infrastructure.
One crucial yet overlooked opportunity for acceleration of mental health reforms is emergency circumstances during disaster in developing countries. Research by Joanne & Mark (2015) was conducted through 10 case studies in emergency affected areas such as Burundi, Jordan among others. The cases showed that emergencies can be utilized to come up with adequate and sustainable developments in mental health.
Quality Improvement Process
To improve the quality of mental healthcare in Tunisia after a disaster, it is crucial to adopt a longer term strategy for mental health restructurings from the beginning. This means that for every crisis, there should be calculated measures for the conversion of mental health issue interests from the short term into long term for the success of reforms. Research has shown that although challenges exist, development and enforcement of sustainability in mental health is possible during and after emergencies (Joanne & Mark, 2015).
This improvement process considers the flow of human suffering presented by emergencies. However, these emergencies are opportunities of catalyzing mental health care improvement. According to Joanne & Mark (2015), this has been proven to be effective in areas that have tremendously weak mental health systems and complicated humanitarian disasters. This process has been chosen under the consideration that Tunisia is a developing country with weak health care models and faces complex disasters.
Quality Improvement Plan
The plan involves various strategies to be put in place in addressing the issue. Firstly, there is a need for supporting the reforms by planning for sustainable health care from the beginning. This can be achieved through crucial donors being put in place for facilitation of long term financing of mental health reforms via iterated contracts. The government can also assume the funding role for continued mental healthcare.
Secondly, addressing the wide mental health requirements of the population affected by disaster is key. This is contrary to focusing on a single disorder which is commonly post-traumatic stress. Adversity is a risky issue when addressing a majority of mental disorders (Joanne & Mark, 2015). Since areas such as Tunisia have restricted services for people with already existent mental issues, there is need for diversification in reforms.
Thirdly, advocacy is necessary for the maintenance of the reform momentum. This is done to allow relevant groups to advocate for wider mental health changes. This helps in maintaining the focus for reforms after emergencies. Advocacy is mostly effective when the groups are allowed to participate in decision making.
In addition, demonstrations are necessary for the provision of concept evidence. This is also a form of attracting more support through funding. The latter is especially effective when the demos are explicitly associated with discussions and strategies on wider mental health reforms.
Furthermore, reorganization and training of health workers is important. As such, these workers are better equipped for management of mental health issues (Shilpa & Pant, 2015). It is important to create fresh health worker cadres to address service gaps. Recruiting workers from the locality is important in ensuring culturally acceptable interventions.
Lastly, reviewing and revising natio