Question

You have been thinking about going to school to be a mental health professional. However, you have heard that mental health professionals face liability issues and complaints, but you are unsure why. Conduct research using the text and the Internet to find 5 reasons why mental health professionals are at a high risk for complaints. How can these be avoided?

Answer 1

Working as a mental health professional is one of the most challenging jobs in the current environment. A few years back, there were only a few patients or individuals who needed support from them but due to a variety of reasons, this has now increased significantly. This put the mental health professionals under huge pressure to ensure the treatment and diagnosis is done accurately. In addition to this, there is always a risk of facing legal issues and liabilities. Few of the major reason why mental health professionals are a risk of facing complaint are as follows:

• Incorrect diagnosis
• Errors in the assessment method
• Wrong treatment and/or medications
• Accountability of patient
• Increased work pressure and demands

All these factors contribute to the major reasons for mental health professionals facing complaints or legal actions. Doing an incorrect diagnosis puts the patient and community at risk while having an error in the assessment method will lead to wrong results. All patients cannot be treated in the same manner and there should be different approaches to assessing different sets of patients. This often to wrong medications or advice in further treatments. Along with this, very often the mental health professional is given the authority to check whether an individual is ready to get back with the community or take a break from them. Suppose a patient suffers from mental breakdown due to certain external stressors and is undergoing treatment, then it becomes the decision of the mental health professional to check whether the patient is ready for community or not. There have been cases where patients who have been cleared later turned up in even bigger issues mainly because they could not cope with the pressures. Every member who is associated with the patient will often point the finger at the mental health professional and show that it was his responsibility to ensure the patient was ready. The last problem which can lead to complaint is thier own increased work pressures. Having to deal with a multitude of patients often takes its toll on the mental health professionals themselves causing them to cloud their judgment.

These issues can be resolved or avoided only when the health professionals decide to tackle them together rather than trying to take them on their own. An incorrect diagnosis can be avoided by taking the second opinion of another experienced professional. This will often help the team to identify the likely condition faster and accurately. The second challenge can be avoided by undergoing extensive training and continuously learning new techniques for mental health assessment. Wrong medication and treatment cannot be easily avoided. This can be avoided only by dealing with a lot of patience and experience. The same applies to the accountability of patients. Accountability of the patient does not finish once the treatment is completed but finishes when the patient is well and proper. Again for this issue, the only solution is to take decisions based on experience or take the advice of experienced professionals. Using these solutions one can avoid the major issues that a mental health professional faces. But these issues should not be a deterrent to any person pursuing the filed of mental health. Issues and challenges will arise in any role and it is up to the individual to ensure the role can be executed properly.