Discussion 1: Evidence Base in Design

When politics and medical science intersect, there can be much debate. Sometimes anecdotes or hearsay are misused as evidence to support a particular point. Despite these and other challenges, however, evidence-based approaches are increasingly used to inform health policy decision-making regarding causes of disease, intervention strategies, and issues impacting society. One example is the introduction of childhood vaccinations and the use of evidence-based arguments surrounding their safety.

In this Discussion, you will identify a recently proposed health policy and share your analysis of the evidence in support of this policy.

To Prepare:

• Review the Congress website provided in the Resources and identify one recent (within the past 5 years) proposed health policy.
• Review the health policy you identified and reflect on the background and development of this health policy.

Post a description of the health policy you selected and a brief background for the problem or issue being addressed. Explain whether you believe there is an evidence base to support the proposed policy and explain why. Be specific and provide examples.

As the world battle to eradicate the Covid 19 pandemic which took the world by surprise. The pandemic created a new health crisis. Mental health has become a major health problem globally. Covid 19 pandemic has affected the world in a drastic way, both financially and psychologically.  Coupled with the fear of the pandemic along with social isolation, anxiety and loss have led to the increase of mental health diagnosis and symptoms. There has been a projected increase in suicide in the United States and is the 10^th leading cause of death in the United States (CDC, 2021). The rise of mental health problems due to Covid 19 has led to the introduction of the S. 631 bill.

The S. 631 bill- Covid 19 Mental Health Research Act (Congress, n.d.) was introduced on 3/9/21 by Sen Klobuchar. It was introduced to direct the health and human services to conduct or support research on mental health issues caused by Covid 19 pandemic.  The bill proposes to focus on research on the impact of Covid 19 on mental health; stressors on mental health over time, the effectiveness, and delivery of mental health interventions for underserved populations, suicide prevention, the impact on children, minorities, health care workers. The bill also proposed that the national research institute will be responsible for carrying out these researches and also proposed funding appropriated to be  1million dollars for each fiscal year starting 2022 to 2026 (Congress, n.d.).

Evidence has shown that Covid 19 has affected mental health globally.  Research was done to show that symptoms of mental health increased, and the result showed that anxiety (6.33% to 50.9%), depression (14.6% to 48.3%), post-traumatic stress disorder (7% to 53.8%), psychological distress (34.43% to 38%), and stress (8.1% to 81.9%) was reported during the COVID-19 pandemic (Xiong et al., 2020). As a health care worker who personally experienced a new onset of anxiety symptoms during the early phases of the Covid 19 pandemic, I do believe there are supporting evidence-based information concerning the impact of Covid 19 on the public mental health. Mental health involves a person’s total wellbeing both emotional and psychological. Therefore, once there are solutions or answers to mental health increase, then there will be a road map to solving or reducing the effect of mental health problems in the future.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2021). Preventing Suicide. Retrieved April

13, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/pdf/preventing-suicide-factsheet-2021-508.pdf

Congress.gov (n.d.). S. 631 Covid-19 Mental Health Research

Act.  https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/631/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22mental+health%22%5D%7D&r=3&s=7

Xiong, J., Lipsitz, O., Nasri, F., Lui, L. M., Gill, H., Phan, L., Chen-Li, D., Lacobucci, M., Ho,

R., Majeed, A., & Mclntyre, R. S. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 277, 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001

Respond to at least two of your colleagues* on two different days by either supporting or respectfully challenging their explanation on whether there is an evidence base to support the proposed health policy they described.