The Growing Focus on Behavioral Health: Trends, Challenges, Implications and what do you need to know about

Behavioral health is considered to be part of health together with mental and substance use disorders, including mental health, as further and further. For the last ten years, a huge progress in Healthcare has been observed in that, behavioral health conditions now tend to be dealt with as a supplement to physical health conditions rather than in isolation. Such a shift highlights an increasing appreciation of an interrelatedness of mental health, physical health and the quality of life well-being as a whole.

As we’ve projected for 2024, Behavioral health will be the number one issue in healthcare, thanks to increased awareness of mental health problems, technological growth, new models of care, and the need to solve the problem of growing behavioral health issues – anxiety and depression, addiction and substance use disorders are on the rise.

The Scope of Behavioral Health Challenges Globally

It can be observed in the developed world that behavioral health issues have reached alarming proportions. Approximately 20% of U.S adults suffer from a mental or substance use disorder with depression and anxiety the commonest afflictions. The World Health Organization is one of the organizations that have pointed out that depression is now the most common disability worldwide and the statistics is expected to only go higher (Palmer, 2018, Jared, Seat word on benefits, 2013).

Word on Benefits The Covid-19 pandemic was a triggering factor that created a mental health disaster across the world. People experienced social isolation, economic insecurity, grief and uncertainty, leading to increased anxiety and depression as well as substance abuse disorders. Most symptoms of anxiety and depression especially in Australia upon entering the U.S grew four up during the period of the pandemic calling for new urgent behavioral health measures (Cigna Healthcare Newsroom).

Nevertheless, despite the increasing demand, structural obstacles to the provision of care keep on being high… These barriers such as stigma and disassociation from the culture ofpusing for mental health help, lack of care and shortages of workforce have remained in the way of hysteria for a long time, but new trends are beginning to address these barriers.

Baich– further integrated care strategy

Aside from being one of the top ten integrated service model which brings greater change in the healthcare sector, it aims to advocate the integration of behavioral and physical healthcare. Studies indicate that there are also important two-way connections between the physique and the psyche. For instance:

Chronic physical illnesses like diabetes or heart diseases are more common among people with severe mental health conditions like schizophrenia.

Chacteristics of people of patients who have continued:

Chacteristics of people of patients who have continued their cancer or heart ailments would understand the care requirements more and may have an ethos more.

As a result, integrated care models developed in which mental health care was integrated with primary cares with better outcomes for patients. Especially within this model teams are formed that coordinate the care of patients in terms of both physical and mental health.

Such convergence has also been taking place in the work environment. Now, Employers appreciate the need to care about their employees’ mental health the same way they do with their physical health. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have existed in many cases for decades, but now more and more such trends as workplace wellness programs deal with the arrangements for employees’ mental health measures, such as stress management and mindfulness training in the best interest of employees’ well​(Word on Benefits).

Addressing Access Barriers:

The Role of Telehealth and Digital SolutionsBarriers to care remain one of the most significant factors influencing improvement in behavioral health outcomes. With a notable historical lack of funding mental health services, long waitlists and lack of professionals, especially in rural areas has been the norm. But, telehealth and digital behavioral platforms will change this. Mobile-based applications and, in general, emerging technologies in the new age.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated the development and deployment of Telehealth, which has since remained a key component of healthcare delivery systems where behavioral health services are concerned. It is also effective to use it at a distance for helping than in-person care as online services significantly lower the access barriers such as travelling and with the time and are useful for severe depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.

This has also helped to some extent to prevent stigma by providing privacy that may not be obtained during face-to-face consultations. Visiting a doctor’s office for mental health treatment may be daunting and therefore online treatment comes as a relief for these patients. Therefore, the number of mental health applications has increased tremendously that assist the individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and addiction among other disorders.

But, although challenges are coming from telehealth expansion of access, they should be addressed through alternative strategies . Telehealth equity has been a major problem as there is disparity in the usage of the internet, digital devices and their use for telehealth to benefit different populations. These and other initiatives remain vital towards the resolution of disparity in access to behavioral health treatment.

Workforce Shortages and Systemic Challenges

There are great difficulties in the behavioral health workforce, among which the availability of a pool of trained and qualified professionals is the foremost challenge. The National Council for Behavioral Health has estimated that there is a deficit of over 4,500 psychiatrists in the US alone, and equally bleak, if not worse, is the situation of other mental health professional’s such as psychologists, social workers, and counselors Cigna….

Such gaps are more pronounced in rural regions where the availability of such services is scant. This gap in provision results to overstretched healthcare systems, excessive waiting lists for treatment, poor mental health provision as a result impacting negatively on the already failing state of health in these areas.

However, inappropriate Powers mechanisms such as lack of funding, multiple service providers, working in isolation and varying levels of insurance reimbursement for the mental health, are other barriers to the effective functioning of the system. There are many people with mental health or substance use disorder who are still undervalued and unprotected by this system, and while some protective laws like the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) do exist, which prohibits unequal treatment of mental disorders with other physical disease, practical application of it is very poor.

Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: Two Pronged Problem

Mental disorders and substance use disorders (SUDS) tend to happen at the same time and require separate treatment options. Co-occurring disorders, dysfunctions which rage from alcohol dependence and mental illness are rampant, but are quite unfortunate because most of these people are marginalized in the society because most of the practitioners are unable to treat both aspects.

Although it is common knowledge that substance use disorders are on the include including the opioid addiction has been escalating in America. The death toll of the opioid dependence in the last two decades has been hundreds of thousands, with recent statistics reporting more death cases owing to the increase of synthetic opioids like Fentanyl.

The Opioid epidemic has also been worsened by COVID 19, AMONG other statements that have been provided the nature of the COVID-19. It has been believed that several individuals due to where they were unable to be visited and could lose their jobs, adequate depression and anxiety came out of this which only pushed them further to various kinds of after, use and later manifestation of abnormal behaviors and excessive use of dual diagnosis treatment.

The dual problem of addressing the substance abuse and mental health status of patients has to be considered as an epidemiological pitfall that integrated treatment can help therapists overcome. There seems to be a shift towards the adoption of traumatized based health and MAT model to circumvent the issues that cause abuses and mental illness at the same time.

How Employers Can Contribute to the Improvement of Behavioral Health

One setting in which behavioral health can be dealt with is the workplace. Mental health issues contribute the most to employee absenteeism and loss of productivity, with depression being responsible for approximately 1 trillion USD in economic losses due to work absenteeism on an annual basis. And this change has made employers to be concerned creating environments that help safeguard the mental wellbeing of employees.

One of the things that many businesses are trying to address is the way that interactions are happening through mental health training for management. Businesses are trying to create more supportive and less stigmatized work cultures by providing sufficient training to managers on how to detect mental health concerns within their teams. Parallelly, resilience training for employees has also gained popularity, giving workers skills to reduce stress and enhance their mental health.

In addition, employers are putting more resources into extensive mental health benefits rather than restriction to just the traditional Employee Assistance Programs. These include zaleplon access, as well as stress relief programs and apps that enhance sleep or mindfulness.

Primary Prevention and Early Intervention

Behavioral health has a strong prevention focus and this has resulted in a move towards early intervention to deal with the mental health and substance use disorders. These primary and secondary preventative measures try to control the prevalence of mental health issues at stages when they are still non- severe or non chronic.

As an illustration, in schools, children are being taught how to regulate their emotions, manage stress and cope through mental health education. Even pediatric care is now being targeted for early intervention, with doctors screening children and adolescents for anxiety, depression and trauma.

Prevention is also useful in the tackling of the SDOH (social determinants of health) which are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work. Other aspects including and lack of education, poverty, and housing stress also affect the mental health conclusion. This way, the public would not only be able to prevent mental health sentences from being reached; rather, there would be no need for such bio-psycho-social problems to exist in the first instance.

Behavioral Health Policy and Advocacy

Due to an increasing emphasis on behavioral health, several policies have been related towards improving access, financing and the coordination of care. Action on mental health is now being taken by the governments both at the Federal level and the State level: there have been recent laws which have increased the level of funding available to mental health services, alcohol and drug abuse and stress intervention programs.

The establishment of 988, a lifeline for National Suicide Prevention in the US has been recognized as a significant advancement in the accessibility of mental health crisis response services. In an overarching strategy, this policy aims to put in place an effective crisis response system across the United States where in times of mental health disasters people at risk will be saved from such issues as suicide.

Advocacy efforts are also focused on the integration of mental health coverage in the healthcare system by addressing mental health conditions no differently from the physical conditions within the healthcare. These movements are focused on eliminating the barriers to provision of care and quality of behavioral health care services.

Conclusion: A Forward Looking Vision On Behavioral Health

Behavioral health, heretofore marginalized, is literally on fire.

Lastly, the increased interest in behavioral health highlights an important turning point in healthcare delivery and management, seeking a more holistic approach to wellness. One in five adults in the United States has a behavioral health problem, and limitations such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders have indeed, increased over the years, more so during the COVID-19 Pandemic​.

It has been accepted for some time that the functionalities of the mind and body are inseparable, and that has led to the creation of integrative models of care which are more effective.

As a result, behavioral healthcare, particularly telehealth, and, digital solutions, have increased access to people from ethnic minorities families who were otherwise not served by the behavioral healthcare system, although issues like digital equity still persist.

Further, the shortage of behavioral health providers is still straining the healthcare systems particularly in rural regions​.

Perhaps, Employers have also stepped into the picture to provide mental health support ( such as EAPs) , resilience training and online mental health support.

About The Author