The ACA and Behavioral Health: Has it Made A Difference?
Instructions
The written assignment for Module 5 serves as a litmus test for the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on behavioral health services in your state and in your local community.
Many of the provisions of the ACA were enacted to address the fragmentation in this environment of care. This included challenges of access, integration, and quality of both mental health and substance abuse services.
In a 3-5 page, well developed and substantiated written response, address the following points related to the effectiveness of behavioral health service programs in your state and local community:
1 – Research the Affordable Care Act and its plan to implement changes to address the noted deficiencies in behavioral health service programming.
2 – Identify five (5) of its main provisions to do so and explain why each of these is important to achieve a re-design of behavioral health.
3 – Explore your state’s AND local community’s efforts to implement these provisions and evaluate their effectiveness in doing so.
4 – Assess whether the necessary infrastructure is present in your local community and state to achieve positive results. If so, how was it developed?
5 – Are there remaining gaps in behavioral health service delivery and if so, what are your recommendations to address these?
6 – Present a well-developed and substantiated conclusion as to whether the ACA has really made a difference in behavioral health service delivery in your community and how this is linked to the overall health of the entire community.
This written assignment aligns with Module Learning Objectives # 3, #4, #5 and #6
Module Level Objectives:
By the end of this module you will be able to:
1 -Explore the meaning of mental health and identify its accompanying disorders as well as examine its prevalence and impact on community health.
2 – Trace the history of mental health care in the US and evaluate major changes in its approach to both care and treatment over time.
3 – Critically examine challenges faced by Mental Health programming in serving the needs of those who are homeless or incarcerated.
4 – Critically consider the current prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse in the US and its impact on the individual, the community and the nation.
5 – Assess the effectiveness of current health programming for prevention and treatment of substance abuse and mental health issues as well as needed mechanisms for control interventions.
6 – Evaluate the impact of established mental health and substance abuse policies on local, state and national levels on prevention, control and treatment efforts.
Tips for Written Assignment
Your written assignments are intended to test your understanding of important concepts and discover how to sharpen your intellectual skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and application. Completing assignments also provides you with opportunities to more fully describe, explain, and analyze what you are reading, discussing, etc. to deepen your learning.
