The document discusses mental and emotional well-being as a public health issue. It analyzes how mental health impacts human development, socioeconomic status, and economic indicators in a nation. Specifically, it explores how mental disorders like depression can deteriorate economic levels and increase demands for identification and treatment of mental health issues. The document also examines the economic impact of mental health in areas like unemployment, personal income, and allocation of funds. It proposes policies to build community health services, promote self-care, and raise awareness of mental disorders to address America's high rates of mental illness.

1. MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
Public Health Issue
Mental and Emotional Well-being
By: Kristi Felch
Public health issue: Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
Analysis of the mental and emotional wellbeing
In many nations s the mental health of the citizens of the
country is recognised largely as the key element towards the
human development regarding his physical health. Furthermore,
the mental health is a vital capstone toward the improvement of

2. the socioeconomic status in a nation. Mental disorders
especially depressions have contributed largely to the
deterioration of the economic level of the relative organisation
and the country at large (Grob, 2016).
Economic principles and indicators of mental and emotional
wellbeing
The high ascending rate of mental health in the society have to
lead to an increase in demand for identification of the evidence
that supports the mental health traces in people. More likely,
there is a need for investigation of the most effective ways that
can be used to cube this factor, which should be very cost
effective. Mental health or the physical well-being is a key
factor in determining the behaviour of the individual in the
employment environment as well as in the marketing
environment (Grob, 2016).
Mental health will contribute on the way the resources are
distributed among the individual making up a society.
Furthermore, economics will be concerned on how the diverse
ways of resources allocation have an impact on the society
people. However, the resources available to meet all the health
needs are very finite (Grob, 2016).
About the mental health and emotional well-being, the decision
on the allocation of resources is a very complicated decision as
the mental diseases tend to be common, disabling and long-
lasting. Mental disorders are associated with welfare cases.
When people in a society or a nation have conflicts as a result
of mental disorders, they will affect the economic status of the
nation. This is evidenced by the destruction of available
resources. Despite this, inflation is another key economic
indicator associated with mental disorders (Grob, 2016). A
nation will secure loans from other nation with the aim of
conquering the mental health issue. This will raise the level of
inflation in the affected nation as it tries to coup with the
payment of the loans.
Economic impact of mental health and wellbeing
1. Unemployment and poverty

3. Mental disorders are characterized by the fact that the mentally
affected people will always tend to be accompanied by job-
related issues. For instance, a mentally affected person will
have a periodic character of absenteeism in the job. This will
mean that the affected worker will not perform his delegated
tasks. The employers will not allow such a worker, and he ends
up quitting the job (World Health Organization, 2014).
2. Effect on personal income
As the rate of mental health increase, it affects the rate of
working of the affected person regarding the number of working
hours as well as the quality of the job done. Furthermore, those
people who are supporting the mentally disordered persons will
use much of their funds in caring for the mentally ill persons.
For example, according to a research done by the WHO it show
that the current number of patients being treated in the hospital
is only 5% of what was there in 1950 eras (World Health
Organization, 2014).
3. Diverting allocation of funds
The government in a nation that is highly affected by the mental
illnesses will allocate much of the country funds towards the
support of the treatment and management of the disorder. This
will mean that less amount will be left for the development
towards other sectors of the country. For instance, in the US the
government will send the mentally ill persons to the prison
instead of taking them to the mental hospitals, hence
misdirecting funds (World Health Organization, 2014).
Some of the key organisation related to mental disorders are;
World Health Organization (WHO), National Institute of
National Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and
the National Health Service. Some of the strategies to coup with
the disorder include introduction anti-stigma strategies,
increased inventions concerning the disorders, creating public
awareness and imposing laws to protect the right to the mentally
sick persons from discrimination (World Health Organization,
2014).

4. Evaluation of policy
To decline the level of mental illness related issues, the WHO
about the UN has come up with legal guidelines that are meant
to ensure that the mentally disabled people are well treated and
their right met. Furthermore, these policies ensure that the
public are protected against the occurrence of the mental
illness. These landscapes include;
· Promotion of mental health and prevention of mental disease.
Everyone should benefit from the best possible measures to
ensure their mental well-being. This is achieved through
promoting behaviours which contribute to enhancing and
maintaining the mental wellbeing of a person (Rogers, 2014).
· Access to basic mental health care. Everyone in need should
have access to the basic mental treatment. This is achieved
through having medical practices in keeping with the quality
assurance such as those that are set by the WHO, and ensuring
that the services are highly affordable to the citizens.
Furthermore, this is boosted by introducing mental health
components into the primary health (Rogers, 2014).
· Mental health assessment by the internationally accepted
principles. This achieved through the promotion of clinical
training using the internationally accepted tools and performing
complete reassessment each time a new assessment is conducted
(Rogers, 2014).
The above policies have to lead to ensuring better treatments
are provided to the American citizens who have been affected
by the mental illness. Furthermore, the policies have to lead to a
decline in future possibilities of citizens having mental illnesses
(Rogers, 2014).
Proposed policy
· Building community health services: this will ensure that
anyone affected by the mental illness will not have a hard time
in accessing medical services. The services will just be within
the community.
· Promoting self-care: America should promote self-care by
motivating its citizens to engage in self-care test. Awards

5. should be made to those who stand out to engage in the frequent
mental test.
· Raising awareness about mental disorders: the nation should
find effective ways such as media to educate the citizens on the
importance treating any trace or symptom of mental illness.
Limitation as a result of mental illnesses should be made clear
to the people.
Defending above policies
Despite the evidence that nearly 1 out of every 5 American
citizens has a mental illness, American reluctance to improve
the medical services have been one of the causes. The
community health services will improve the care coordination
and mental illness services. It will make the country use less
fund due to improved treatment coordination (Clement et al.,
2015).
Self-care strategies will ensure that the nation incorporates
more or additional health care stuff. Evidence shows that
America is hit by shortage of mental health workforce.
However, when many people engage in self-care, more staffs
will be needed to act as the consultancies, hence expanding the
mental workforce (Clement et al., 2015).
Improving the level of awareness will provide a relative
education concerning the disorder. Many American citizens are
evidenced to have a negative attitude towards the people with
mental illness as well as their associated families. Evidence-
based awareness will reduce the level of discrimination among
the mentally ill persons (Clement et al., 2015).
Implementation
Barriers to policy change
Limited knowledge: most of the American citizens lack
adequate knowledge towards the causes, treatment and
management of mental illnesses. This is evidenced when the
statics show that 1 out of every five adults is affected by the
mental illness (Melchiorre et al., 2013).
Lack of effective community strategy: for a change in a policy
to be effective, all the parties need to be involved. The

6. community at large plays a vital capstone in ensuring effective
policy change. This is achieved through the persuasion by the
community leaders. Lack of this support will be a barrio to the
policy change and implementation (Melchiorre et al., 2013).
Ethnic differences: differences in the ethnic groups’ practices in
a nation will prevent uniform implementation of some of the
policies. Some communities will value some aspects while
others will strongly oppose them.
Supports for policy change
High income and good social status: the higher the level of
income of the people in a community or a nation, the higher the
probability of support towards the proposed policies. For
instance, if well-being people propose to improve the health
facilities of the community, they are most likely to do so as
they have enough funds to support the project (Melchiorre et
al., 2013).
High education level: the higher the level of intellectual
capabilities in a nation the higher the probability of improved
reasoning towards the policy changes.
Physical environment: a society with the convenient physical
environment will be geared toward improvement in both the
health and social status as compared to that with minimal or
unfavourable physical environment (Melchiorre et al., 2013).
Conclusion
In conclusion, as evidenced above, America is one of the
nations that is predominantly hit by the effects of mental illness
among its citizens. In my opinion, I would highly encourage the
Americans to take precautionary measures to avoid being
victims of mental illness. The relative mental organisation
should encourage and raise awareness to the citizens to learn
how to deal with stress, break up monotonies, and taking care of
their bodies by being involved in physical and mental practices.

7. References
Grob, G. N. (2016). Community Mental Health Policy in
America: Lessons Learned. Mental Health Reform and a
Window of Opportunity for Community Mental Health, 53(1), 6.
World Health Organization. (2014). Social determinants of
mental health. World Health Organization.
Rogers, A., & Pilgrim, D. (2014). A sociology of mental health
and illness. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-
Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., ... & Thornicroft, G. (2015). What
is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking?
A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies.
Psychological medicine, 45(1), 11-27.
Melchiorre, M. G., Chiatti, C., Lamura, G., Torres-Gonzales, F.,
Stankunas, M., Lindert, J., ... & Soares, J. F. (2013). Social
support, socio-economic status, health and abuse among older
people in seven European countries. PloS one, 8(1), e54856.
HCM 320 Milestone Three Guidelines and Rubric

8. Overview: For Milestone Three, you will address the critical
elements in the Evaluation of Policy section of your final
project and write a letter to the
stakeholders involved to describe and defend your proposed
policy. Stakeholders could include policy makers, healthcare
providers, insurers, and healthcare
consumers.
Your letter should include background on the key health issue
and your assumption of the positive and negative impacts
inferred by existing policies (e.g.,
unintended consequences or public reaction). The document
should not be based solely on emotion, though it should not be
divorced of sentiment, as it needs
to rouse the proper energy to effect change. The goal of the
document is to convince the reader that your proposed policy
will improve the U.S. healthcare
system in terms of quality, costs, and accessibility.
Submit your analysis in a letter format that you may use to
develop speaker’s notes for your final presentation.
Prompt: Write a letter to a stakeholder to describe and defend
your proposed policy.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Evaluation of Policy
A. Discuss the current economic and legal landscape related to
your public health issue. To what extent do existing policies (or
the lack thereof)
have positive or negative impacts to the American healthcare
system?

9. B. Explain your proposed policy using evidence and examples
to illustrate.
1. What are the specific operational strategies that you believe
are necessary for addressing your chosen issue and why?
2. What role do the major healthcare organizations play in your
proposed policy? To what extent can their position in the
marketplace be
harnessed?
C. Defend your proposed policy for addressing the public health
issue with specific research and evidence.
1. How will your proposed public policy improve the American
healthcare system in terms of healthcare quality, costs, and
accessibility?
2. In what ways is your proposed policy informed by the larger
socioeconomic factors that can influence public health?
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your paper must be submitted as a
2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-
point Times New Roman font,
one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA
format.
Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in
Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade
Center. For more information,
review these instructions.
http://snhu-
media.snhu.edu/files/production_documentation/formatting/rubr
ic_feedback_instructions_student.pdf

10. Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (75%)
Not Evident (0%) Value
Evaluation of Policy:
Current Landscape
Discusses the current economic and
legal landscape related to the public
health issue, including to what extent
existing policies have positive or
negative impacts on the healthcare
system
Discusses the current economic and
legal landscape related to the public
health issue, but fails to fully or
accurately qualify the extent to which
existing policies have positive or
negative impacts on the healthcare
system
Does not discuss the current economic
and legal landscape related to the
public health issue
18
Evaluation of Policy:
Explain: Operational
Strategies
Explains the proposed policy in terms

11. of the specific operational strategies
and why they are necessary for
addressing the public health issue
Explains the proposed policy, but fails
to detail the specific operational
strategies and why they are necessary
for addressing the public health issue
Does not explain the proposed policy in
terms of the necessary operational
strategies
18
Evaluation of Policy:
Explain: Healthcare
Organizations
Explains the proposed policy in terms
of the role the major healthcare
organizations can play to harness their
market position for addressing the
public health issue
Explains the proposed policy, but fails
to detail the specific ways in which the
major healthcare organizations can
harness their market position to
address the public health issue
Does not explain the proposed policy in
terms of the role of the major
healthcare organizations in addressing
the public health issue

12. 18
Evaluation of Policy:
Defend: Improve
Defends the proposed policy by
explaining how it will improve the
American healthcare system in terms
of healthcare quality, costs, and
accessibility
Defends the proposed policy, but fails
to fully or logically explain how it will
improve the American healthcare
system in terms of healthcare quality,
costs, and accessibility
Does not defend the proposed policy in
terms of how it will improve the
American healthcare system
18
Evaluation of Policy:
Defend: Informed
Defends the proposed policy by
explaining how it is informed by the
larger socioeconomic factors that
influence public health
Defends the proposed policy, but fails
to fully or logically explain how it is
informed by the larger socioeconomic
factors that influence public health

13. Does not defend the proposed policy in
terms of how it is informed by larger
socioeconomic factors
18
Articulation of Response Submission has no major errors related
to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax,
or organization
Submission has major errors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that negatively impact
readability and articulation of main
ideas
Submission has critical errors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that prevent
understanding of ideas
10
Total 100%