What are the most effective patient advocacy strategies for mental health and substance abuse issues?

Biggest hurdle I have faced is "reasonable accomodations" My depression is cyclic, when things are bad its hard to get out of bed, anxiety displays as anger. How do you tell HR its a symptom not an excuse? And why are the meds so expensive. Without insurance 1.. just 1 of my meds is $600 USD / month. Prescription drug coverage is extremely important when costing out health insurance plans for employees

The term "substance abuse" is a bit dated and perhaps unintentionally leads to stigmatization. That term has been replaced by the term substance use disorder or SUD. Individuals with a SUD often experience one or more co-occurring mental illnesses. Understanding these nuances will go a long way to gaining trust and preserving the dignity of the patient.

In my experience, home based counseling and medical therapy works best, with community advocacy and identification of issues affecting them

A patient advocate by definition should be a peer with similar lived experience. This lowers the perceived power differential between the patient and the advocate. A peer has walked the walk and typically has navigated the same care (social and clinical) options with a given community.

Aftercare planning should be a core element of a patient's discharge instructions. As a person in long-term recovery and who has been leading community based coalitions related to SUD/mental illness, I've learned that an individual's needs include housing, suitable employment, transportation, etc. Recovery Community Organizations often offer services and programs to help navigate community resources to address these needs.

Evidence suggests a shift in focus from crisis intervention to prevention and early intervention is needed. Mental crisis begins earlier than healthcare system has been set up to recognize and continues long after an emergency is resolved. Thus, one key direction is to tackle stigma surrounding mental illness by raising awareness and providing community-based services to build safe and resilient spaces.

With the proper support and care for the most basic of human needs and education on different modalities we as a global village can make the necessary changes to not only strengthen our mental health but also alleviate the daily stresses that cause most of them…

ACTUAL PATIENT PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY IS A JOKE!!! In today’s mental health facilities there is a severe lack of connection with patients and medication isn’t ALWAYS the solution!!! We need better social services and workers to lighten the load of the over stressed system that is supposed to both provide for and protect those that can’t do that for themselves for one reason or another.

Don’t ever stop learning and growing!!! You’ll never reach your full potential if you give up and become complacent. There is so much we can learn in this world and so many perspectives on mental health and ways to treat the core root of the problem instead of putting bandaids on gushing head wounds. We over prescribe and don’t have the resources necessary and affordable to face this crisis with our current approach…

First of all stop saying “substance abuse” if you are. The DSM rid itself of that awful language more than a decade ago now. Plus it puts drugs on scale equal to humans and animals - and any other sentience beings.