What is Mental Health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
Over the course of your life, if you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behavior could be affected. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including:
- Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry
- Life experiences, such as trauma or abuse
- Family history of mental health problems
What are signs of mental health issues?
Not sure if you or someone you know is living with mental health problems? Experiencing one or more of the following feelings or behaviors can be an early warning sign of a problem:
- Eating or sleeping too much or too little
- Pulling away from people and usual activities
- Having low or no energy
- Feeling numb or like nothing matters
- Having unexplained aches and pains
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
- Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
- Yelling or fighting with family and friends
- Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
- Having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head
- Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
- Thinking of harming yourself or others
- Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school
What are Psychiatric Home Health services?
Psychiatric Home Health services are provided in your residence, whether that’s a home or a speciality care facility. These services are specifically designed to prevent further decline in mental and physical health. A team of specially trained nurses who are CMS approved in psychiatric care are able to address many medical conditions that affect thoughts, moods, and behavior through the management of associated symptoms.
Our registered nurses (RN’s) meet with you or your family members to educate them and support them through the development of Crisis Management Plans, medication administration techniques, and safe interventions that enhance our patient;s independence.
What Psychiatric Nursing services are offered?
- Mental health assessment
- Medication management and evaluation
- Administration of IM psychotropic medications
- Evaluation of psychiatric disorders
- Patient/family education
- Community resource education
- Stress management and coping skills
- Behavioral crisis plan and interventions
- Crisis interventions
- Standardized mental health exams
- After hours and weekend care
- Management of psychiatric and medical diseases
- Venipuncture and prescribed injections
- All other medical services/hospice and provider services
Who is eligible for Psychiatric Home Health services?
Persons experiencing the following may be eligible for services:
- Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia
- Bipolar disorder
- Depression
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Schizophrenia
Does Medicaid cover mental health or substance use disorder services?
All state Medicaid programs provide some mental health services and some offer substance use disorder services to beneficiaries, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries receive a full service array. These services often include counseling, therapy, medication management, social work services, peer supports, and substance use disorder treatment.