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School
Louisiana State University, Alexandria *
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Course
4305
Subject
Medicine
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
jpeg
Pages
1
Uploaded by edwardst73
Health disparities continue to affect the lives of people in every walk of life. Advancements in healthcare has helped to decrease many health disparities, but the ever-growing population continually increases making complete elimination difficult. Eliminating medical health disparities seems to receive a plethora of recognition and support. Mental illness is becoming an increasingly important topic in the media, the medical world, and in lay-persons lives. Healthy People 2020 define a health disparity as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). Lafayette Parish 1s known for its cultural diversity, large oil field industry, and a number of different positive attributes. The population as of July 2016 in Lafayette Parish was estimated 241,398 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). While Lafayette has many different positive avenues of employment, in 2015 and 2016 the city found itself in the midst of a huge increase in unemployment rates. In 2016, Lafayette parish saw a 6.3 percent increase in its unemployment rate (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). This 1s higher than the average of the United States. The increased percentage of unemployment affects the number of people that have health care insurance. With the increase of uninsured individuals, recent lay-offs, and complete life-changing events, Lafayette Parish had an increase in people needing mental health evaluations and counseling. With the increase of the number of people that became uninsured in Lafayette Parish in 2015-2016, the wait to get into an inpatient psychiatric facility became longer than normal. Lafayette Behavioral Health Unit (LBHU) is the only psychiatric facility in Lafayette Parish that is specifically for the uninsured, indigent population (Lafayette General Health, 2017). The increase of job loss, specifically in the oil field, created an influx of patients that were being admitted with depression, increased drug dependency, and mood disorders to the 24-bed unit that I have been employed at since 2014. The influx of new patients at the inpatient unit also put a strain on the outlying outpatient units and community pharmacy. Patients were unable to receive appointments until three months post discharge from LBHU at Tyler Mental Health. This caused another influx of readmissions as patients were unable to seek follow up medications and appropriate times. As a community and parish, Lafayette has to find an evidence-based strategy for reducing this disparity at a population level. According to Smith (2015), “Persons with the lowest level of socioeconomic status are estimated to be about two to three times more likely to have a mental disorder than those with the highest socioeconomic level” (p. 57). During the
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