Letter to the Editor- Population Health Policy Advocacy Current State of the Quality of Care and Outcomes
Depressive disorder is a clinically significant disorder and is increasingly becoming a public health issue. Depressive disorders are common occurrences in primary healthcare and remain one of the leading causes of disability globally. The chronic nature of these disorders confers considerable strain on their management. Major depression remains the leading type of depressive disorder encountered in more than half of the patients presenting with depressive disorders. In the United States alone, the lifetime risk of any depressive disorder stands at 30%. Suicides attributable to depression now account for more than half of all the reported cases (“Depression in the Primary Care Setting,” 2019). These statistics indicate a tilt in paradigm towards abnormal and warrant interventions to preserve the lives of individuals at risk.
Healthcare interventions have, however, evolved to offset this paradigm shift. Pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic interventions have been developed that greatly improve the prognosis of these disorders and enhance their clinical outcomes. Pharmacotherapy with antidepressant drugs in conjunction with psychotherapy has produced favorable clinical outcomes and remains the first line in managing these disorders (Kassianos, 2018). However, these interventions have not been adequate in managing these disorders and reducing significant morbidity and mortality attributable to these disorders. There still exists a gap in care processes for depressive disorders. Access to care remains a challenge for many patients presenting with these disorders. Improving access may provide beneficial effects in diagnosing and treating these disorders.
Most benchmarks on depressive disorders and their management indicate the need for early diagnosis and timely initiation of therapy to prevent significant morbidity and mortality resulting from these disorders. However, this has not been the case in the majority of the care systems globally. Several factors hamper the timely diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders. Socio-cultural factors, gender, and access to healthcare are the most implicated factors in low rates of diagnosis and treatment of these disorders (Bogren et al., 2017). With these gaps still existing within the healthcare system, significant morbidity and mortality are still being realized in these groups, and suicides attributable to depression are rising.
Health Policy Development and Advocacy
An exponential increase in the incidence of depressive disorders has been seen in the recent past. Morbidity and mortality resulting from depression have also increased. The impact of these increases is being felt by the healthcare system. Therefore, innovative approaches are necessary to curtail these increases and effectively manage these patients. Policies targeted at preserving the lives of individuals with these disorders and those that enable the creation of awareness of these disorders are necessary. These policies will allow increased access to care for patients presenting with these disorders and also enable early identification and timely treatment of these disorders.
Healthcare policies provide a framework for managing a specific health issue and its effects on the population curtailed. Policy frameworks on depression have been targeted at raising community awareness of depression, enabling early detection and treatment of these disorders. Additionally, policies on depression have been targeted at enhancing the effectiveness of care processes by providing screening, effective treatment modalities, and psychosocial support to patients presenting with these disorders. The overall effect of these policy provisions has been evident in increased quality of life for most people with these disorders (Cho et al., 2019). This is because of enhanced access to care and the availability of effective modalities of treating these disorders in the conventional healthcare system. Therefore, health policy advocacy remains a valuable tool in which improvements in the management and care processes for the depressed can be achieved. These policies will enable enhanced access to care, availability of resources utilized to diagnose and treat these disorders, and availability of required personnel to handle patients presenting with these disorders.
Justification of the Policy Development
In as much as depression remains a common occurrence in primary healthcare, its management is often carried out in higher levels of care. Therefore, a policy to colocate mental health specialists to the primary level of care is necessary. Mental health professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists are necessary for diagnosing and designing an effective therapeutic plan for patients presenting with depression. Colocating them to the lower levels of care enhances their accessibi