One in five people will experience mental illness during their lives. Awareness of mental health is increasing, but there’s still numerous work to be done. On this episode of Off the Charts podcast, we talk with Sarah Cassell, the director of inpatient mental health services at Regions Hospital.
She talks with us concerning the cultural connection to mental health stigma, the increased need for mental health services and so far more. Hearken to the episode or read the transcript.
How the pandemic affected mental health
The pandemic was a traumatic event that had a huge effect on health, including mental health. Hospitals are seeing more mental health patients come through and a rise in people who find themselves turning to substance use to manage. Sarah Cassell has noticed that the patients coming to Regions Hospital are sicker and require more time in inpatient care.
Care teams are also experiencing a decline in mental health. After years of caring for patients during a pandemic, they’re experiencing mental health issues at higher rates, including burnout. With the intention to help support the inpatient care team at Regions Hospital, Sarah Cassell is working to scale back the stigma that surrounds mental health.
Supporting mental health patients from all cultural backgrounds
Mental health conditions can affect anyone. It’s not unusual for doctors at Regions Hospital to see patients from cultural backgrounds different than their very own, but it may make treating their mental health concerns harder.
Certainly one of the primary steps in supporting mental health equity is providing care in each patient’s primary language. Mental illness will be complicated to elucidate, and a few languages don’t have words to explain the symptoms. Language barriers and miscommunications could make a mental health crisis harder.
Because Regions takes an interdisciplinary approach to treating mental illness, Sarah Cassell believes this helps cut down on miscommunications. So many various experts come together to speak with and hearken to each patient, helping everyone feel understood.
Moving the mental health conversation forward
The inpatient mental health team at Regions Hospital is working to enhance health equity on the subject of treating mental illnesses. We work closely with the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC), a bunch that shares patient feedback on policies and procedures. A former Regions patient helped create therapeutic listening, a time when a patient can sit down with their care team and just speak. This time is all about hearing the patient, not about updating medical charts, moving on to the subsequent treatment or attempting to wrap up the appointment.
Hearken to the episode to listen to from Sarah Cassell concerning the work that’s being done to scale back the stigma around mental health.