Mental health articles

Private practitioners have felt increasingly squeezed financially after the growth of the
managed care industry. To find out how practitioners were dealing with this, Steven Walfish (2001) surveyed psychologists and asked them to identify activities in their independent
practice that fall outside the purview of managed care. A total of 180 specific
activities were identified and were rationally grouped into 10 categories: (1) business psychology, (2) consultation to organizations, (3) fee-for-service, (4) forensic psychology,
(5) group therapy, (6) health psychology, (7) psychoeducational services, (8) services
to government, (9) teaching and supervision, and (10) miscellaneous. Several of these options are related to the core competency of consultation.
Although consultation can be considered a separate practice specialty, it encompasses an important set of skills that support a clinical practice, such as the ability to work more effectively with parents, agencies, colleagues, and community groups.
Consultation skills are important for every mental health practitioner in performing the following activities:
• Addressing community needs and fostering social betterment
• Advocating for underserved populations
• Programming interventions, especially primary prevention interventions
• Working with multidisciplinary teams

All mental health professionals need to understand systems and organizations because
their work is done and their time is spent in a systems context (family, office,
hospital, clinic, university). The mental health provider and the clients that are served do not operate in a vacuum.
As the managed care model, the industrialization, and the commoditization of mental health services continue, clinical providers will need more markets and new services
to ensure their financial survival and a medium for the creative application and
growth of their skills. They may also work directly with organizations
to provide capitation and other traditional services. Capitation is an agreement with an organization to provide mental health services to a set number of employees for a set fee for a set period of time. Organizations are increasingly looking to mental health
providers for improvements in their operating efficiency (and therefore, bottom-line profits). According to an article from the Journal of Management (Danna & Griffin, 1999), “U.S. industry loses approximately 550 million working days annually to absenteeism,
with an estimated 54% of these absences being stress-related. Estimates
place the annual cost at more than $43 billion” .As experts in stress management, mental health clinicians can directly help the performance of organizations and improve the work environments of individuals, thus contributing to the prevention of mental illnesses.
Another important reason for learning about organizational factors is that many mental health professionals eventually become supervisors and managers, usually without adequate training. Knowledge of consultation skills will help prepare practitioners for potential leadership and management roles.

Tags: consulting, Health, Mental health