Adult Depression
It is common for everyone to feel sad for a period of time and such phases tend to phase away after some time. But when such a feeling of sadness and profoundly impacts the daily routine of an individual it is often defined clinically as depression. This form of mental illness tends to happen more in adults compared to children and needs treatment. The consequences of this illness can be serious and sometimes can even lead to suicides if left untreated.
There can be social, psychological, and biological factors behind the development of depression among adults. Stress and strain of daily life or some sad life events can drive an individual to depression. Depression also tends to set in among older adults due to loss of ability to live independently due to a number of factors like limited mobility, frailty, chronic pain or other physical or mental problems. If left untreated, depression can also become chronic in nature. Hence it is very important that early identification, detection, and treatment is typically used for this disease.
Discuss in detail the Healthcare access points for population with adult depression
In most cases, people who are diagnosed with major depressive disorder need to undergo treatment for 4- to 8-week trial of an antidepressant medication according to depression treatment guidelines, and a 4- to 8-week trial period of...
Therefore, it is important that the patients with depression get access to more than one or more than one form of health care facilities.
a. Acute care hospitals
As we have discussed earlier that chronic and acute cases of depression can even lead to suicides or attempted suicides. Inability to conduct regular life chores can also cause other illness to develop among adults suffering from depression. Therefore in cases when an individual gets chronic or acute depression symptoms, doctors often advise psychiatric hospitalization, especially among older adults, for primary treatment of depression (Zivin, Wharton, & Rostant, 2013). On the other hand, longer medical hospital stays are also associated with chronic and acute depression, especially for older adults. Access to acute care hospitals is also associated with depression patients as it can also result in attempted suicides (Carter & Reymann, 2014) as well as for increased chances of rehabilitation needs.
b. Community health centers
For initial identification of adult depression among a population, access to community health centers can prove to be helpful. Since for most individuals, community health centers are the most accessible and affordable, it forms an important component for identification and early treatment of depression.…
