The recent surge in mental health issues among children and adolescents has been recorded for the past few years. This is due to a lack of proper prevention methods and interdisciplinary teams that can work with the objectives of reinforcing primary, tertiary and secondary mental health prevention measures among children, adolescents and their families. PMH-APRNs can expand their roles to accommodate community health prevention competency against mental health disorders (Oleck, 2022). The first way they can expand their roles is through continuous competency-based learning, where they improve their studies and certifications and advance in their career to practice independently and freely and practice with health insurance that accepts them in order to improve their patient outreach and health access. Improvising patient access to health brings the community close to them so that they can actively engage them in the mental health prevention process (Oleck, 2022). Also, they can expand their roles through continuous research on mental health disorders affecting children and adolescents. Research offers new ideas on how to deal with contemporary issues in nursing, as well as keeping an individual updated on new policies and regulations that promote the wellness of children and adolescents and their families against mental health disorders (Oleck, 2022). The needs of mental health patients demand qualified nursing care providers. PMH-APRNs that undertake mental health care provision include Nurse Practitioners (NP) and Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). Both are well skilled in research, systems and direct care of patients to offer top-notch psychiatric evaluations, diagnosis, and treatments that involve individual, family, psychopharmacological approaches, group therapy, as well as primary, secondary and tertiary prevention levels across lifespan.
Understanding the three levels of mental health prevention is essential for all PMH-APRNs. Primary prevention offers prevention of mental health disorders before they occur. This mitigates the risk factors for mental health. For example, youth clubs and groups offer community bounds and support, thus preventing mental health issues like depression and anxiety withy any suicidal ideations. Also, parents’ classes and education prevent substance abuse, which reduces the risk towards a lot of mental health disorders in the communities (Lloyd & Newland, 2021). When doing this, nurses must engage the families and the children at risk of mental health disorders every step of the way. Secondary prevention focuses on early assessment, detection and treatment of mental health disorders. For instance, early screening and detection of risk towards suicide or depression leads to diagnosis and interventions. Also, suicide hotlines, as well as crisis centres, play a crucial role as tools in secondary prevention. Tertiary prevention, however, focuses on the rehabilitation of patients who have been affected by mental health disorders (Lloyd & Newland, 2021). It works towards helping these patients recover and revert to their original state. Examples include outpatient clinic patient follow-up after mental health treatment, support groups, family therapy sessions, and even through medications. Nurses must work with families through every prevention level, which will ensure that patient participation is improved and community involvement is ensured in mental health prevention.
The Mental Health Nurse will have the training and experience to provide high-quality care for people with mental health issues in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This nurse will have the necessary basic, intermediate, and advanced clinical skills to function independently in the field of mental health care (Gianan, 2022). Provide patients, their families/significant others, and the community with evidence-based treatment in mental health institutions and the broader community as needed by relevant legislative frameworks in the roles of mental health practitioners, leaders, and consultants.
References
Gianan, M. E. A. (2022). Compassion Fatigue Among Psychiatric-Mental Health Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (Doctoral dissertation, Regis College). https://search.proquest.com/openview/9641f8f2be168e35ed493525b20ac65b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Lloyd, M. M., & Newland, J. A. (2021). Collaborative treatment with primary care. Child and adolescent behavioral health: A resource for advanced practice psychiatric and primary care practitioners in nursing, 472-482. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119487593.ch27
Oleck, L. (2022). Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses: Spread the Word!. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 28(5), 413-415. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10783903221117555
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