Mental Health Treatment Centers

Mental Health Treatment Centers

Mental illness is a combination of conditions that impact behavior, thinking, and mood.  A mental illness is not the result of one event, but a combination that often includes environment, genetics, and life choices.

The difference between mental struggles and mental illnesses typically involves the frequency and how these struggles impact a person’s ability to function in normal life.  If an individual is struggling with daily life– attending school or work, maintaining relationships, getting out of bed– then this individual may be struggling with a mental illness. ViewPoint Center helps teens struggling with a wide array of mental health struggles.

Some specific examples of when a ViewPoint Center, a mental health treatment center might be useful:

• • If an individual has met with local health professionals and therapists with increasing frequency without noticeable improvement.

• • If feelings are extreme with prolonged sadness, anger, or even euphoria.

• • If behaviors are impacting daily functioning.  Obsessively cleaning or sleeping “the day away” are two behaviors that indicate a potential need for intervention.

• • If thoughts become clouded or if an individual has specific suicidal thoughts then this might be a time to consider in-patient or outpatient mental health treatment centers.

How Often Are Mental Health Treatment Centers Used?

According to the National Mental Health Services Survey, over 3,000,000 people in the United States enrolled in Mental Health Treatment Centers in 2010, the last year this survey was available. A majority of these treatments (61%) were Day or Outpatient treatment centers.  A CDC Study indicates that 1.5 million people were discharged specifically from in-patient hospital care in 2010 with the first-listed diagnoses as some type of psychoses.  For these individuals, the average stay was 7.2 days.

The Benefits of ViewPoint Center

ViewPoint Center provides 24/7 care to stabilize, monitor, and treat patients.  Symptoms do not occur within specified periods, therefore continuous care can help facilities get a clearer assessment and thereby create clearer diagnoses and treatment plans.  This level of care can alleviate symptoms faster than outpatient treatment.

Initially, our program has the ability to assess and test patients, modifying treatment parameters and medications.  This high level of supervision can be useful for added safety for patients.

At ViewPoint Center, including the family back home on diagnoses and treatment plans is paramount to continuing treatment success.

What are Mental Health Treatment Centers

Mental health treatment centers are hospitals or facilities designed to provide treatment to those with mental illnesses.  These treatment centers can be privately owned for profit, operated by non-profits or universities, or state run.  Regardless of operating agent, the goal remains to diagnose and treat those struggling with a variety of mental health issues.

While medications and in-home programming exists in a variety of formats, mental health treatment centers are specific facilities where an individual would attend either in residential or outpatient basis.

Contemporary Articles and Examples

Rising need for eating disorder treatment centers plus recent legislation encouraging affordability has led to more private pay treatment centers opening up in recent years.  According to this New York Times article, the number of treatment facilities has more than tripled in the past decade.  This growth reflects the need and, according to the article, has created concern about the quality of care for a dangerous mental illness.

NPR and then Forbes picked up on the story about a dearth of availability in substance treatment centers around the United States.  This need is not based on too few beds available in mental health treatment centers, rather it is based on a lack of quality counselor staff to work at these facilities and serve the patients.  This article explores the challenges of finding quality staff based on the level of education required, relatively low annual salary, and high burnout rate.

Andreas Lubitz was the German pilot who deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane in the French Alps was treated for suicidal tendencies as his career was getting underway.  It was later revealed he continued to struggle with depression and researched how he could lock himself in the cockpit and intentionally crash the airplane.  His struggles and the airlines actions regarding his illness have led to great debate about the value of mental health treatment centers and the decision-making on allowing those who have struggled with illnesses to be in positions where they have control over the lives of hundreds of others.

Research

Adolescent mental health treatment centers and the overlapping roles of prevention and treatment are examined in this research.  The existing state of prevention and treatment centers are explored as well as their research-based validity and outcomes.  New models and underserved populations are examined as part of research.

This longitudinal study examined the treatment and opportunity cost of treatment as it relates to employment and earnings.  The study looks at how the high cost of treatment leads to a greater need for patients to be gainfully employed, but these employment levels adversely impact the number of treatment hours patients are able to receive.

Disparity in Depression Treatment Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations in the United States.  Margarita Alegría Pinka Chatterji Kenneth Wells Zhun Cao Chih-nan Chen David Takeuchi James Jackson Xiao-Li Meng