Rural physical health care services for people with serious mental illness: A nursing perspective

Abstract

Access and continuity of physical health care experienced by all Australians is exacerbated for people in rural areas. Physical health of people with serious mental illness residing in remote Australia needs to be a national health priority.

Mental ill‐health among adult patients at healthcare centres in Sweden: district nurses experiences

“…Patients with all forms mental ill‐health were considered stressful to deal with due to being more time‐consuming, and it was at times necessary to ignore the patient's need to talk by ending the conversation prematurely. On the other hand, it was important to take advantage of the moment when a patient opened up to talk.

They want to talk more and more and we have to find a way to end the conversation… like, ‘sit down on the balcony at home with a cup of coffee and get back to us again if you need’ . Some patients could talk for ages and took plenty of time …//give someone an inch and they take a mile .

…”

Facilitating knowledge of mental health nurses to undertake physical health interventions: a pre-test/post-test evaluation

“…) From these reviews key areas for consideration in the physical and mental health care delivery emerged, placing mental health nurses in an ideal position to monitor the adverse physical impact of pharmacotherapy, assess service patients’ physical health needs and promote a change in lifestyle choices to enhance physical wellbeing (Howard & Gamble , Happell et al . ). Gray et al .…”

Variation in Utilization of Health Care Services for Rural VA Enrollees With Mental Health‐Related Diagnoses

“…Enabling variables describe the resources available to individuals that would impact use of services. Access to income and employment with an employer offering health insurance coverage for mental conditions have been shown to increase health care options and utilization . The availability of any insurance coverage generally leads to higher health care utilization.…”

“…As a result, there are higher proportions of veterans with combat experience residing in rural areas. Rural residents of all types face mental health care issues related to distance of treatment, provider shortages, treatment stigmas, and poverty . The rural‐dwelling veteran population, which represents approximately 40% of the estimated 23,977,000 veterans in the United States, is at an even higher risk than nonveteran rural residents for a wide variety of mental health‐related issues .…”

“…In rural regions, there is also low acceptability for mental health services due to increased stigma and decreased anonymity . They find it more difficult to locate and maintain health insurance coverage that provides for mental health conditions . A survey of 748,216 veterans found that rural dwellers within mental illness cohorts had worse physical and mental health component quality of life score summaries, and these differences were still significant after controlling for sociodemographic factors.…”