Overview:
For Milestone Two, you will describe for your audience the nature of your chosen public health issue, so that they will be able to understand and appreciate your presentation. Building upon your Milestone One worksheet submission, your analysis will include the economic principles and impacts of the principles involved with your public health issue, related socioeconomic factors, and the healthcare organizations impacted. Use the feedback you received on Milestone One to assist you in developing your introduction. Submit your analysis as a short paper that you may use to develop speaker’s notes for your final presentation.
Prompt:
Describe for your audience the nature of your chosen public health issue, including the economic considerations involved. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Analysis of the Health Issue:
A. Outline the underlying economic principles and indicators at play using specific examples. To what extent do those principles and indicators apply in understanding your chosen public health issue?
B. Demonstrate the economic impacts of your public health issue. Provide specific examples of each impact.
C. Analyze the larger context within which your chosen public health issue exists. To what extent is the issue a product of larger socioeconomic factors?
D. Examine the major healthcare organizations impacted by the public health issue. How are they currently acting and reacting to the issue?
HCM 320 Milestone One Template
Use this template to compile important information and resources for your final project presentation.
1. Public Health Issue Topic: Identify the public health issue you will use as a basis for your final project
presentation. Briefly describe why you choose this topic.
Public Health Issue: Depression and Anxiety Among Young Adults
Depression and anxiety among young adults aged between 18 and 29 remain elevated in the postpandemic period. Mental health is a critical health component among the demographic given its
long-term impacts on the quality of life of the affected persons. Depression among adolescents is
linked to higher crime rates. Literature on mental health also shows that young mothers with
untreated depression usually adopt ineffective parenting strategies and often struggle to develop
healthy relationships with their children. The consequences of this disengagement manifest in poor
child emotional development, lower academic performance, and cognitive scores among the
affected parents and children.
Tackling mental health issues affecting young people is vital because it eliminates its adverse
impacts on education and severe physical, emotional, and behavioral health problems. Furthermore,
unaddressed depression and anxiety are likely to influence the development of other chronic
diseases such as obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and other lifestyle-related diseases
because of poor health choices among young people transitioning into adulthood. The significance
of this health issue is evident, especially from studies showing that children of depressed parents
have a substantially elevated risk of developing mental health problems compared with children of
mentally healthy parents.
2. Economic Forces: Briefly describe some economic forces related to your public health issue.
Macroeconomic Level
Several economic factors influence depression and anxiety prevalence rates among young adults in
the post-pandemic period. On the macroeconomic level, low budgetary allocations to healthcare
workers in mental health facilities can influence the quality of their work and determine the rate of
access to mental healthcare services. Furthermore, lower government spending on mental health
coupled with declining or precarious economic and employment opportunities for households and
individuals significantly affect depression and anxiety levels among young adults.
Microeconomic Level
At the micro-economic level, financial distress among young people as a result of loss of
employment and severed revenue-generating sources has substantially contributed to the elevation
of depressive disorders among vulnerable young adults. The inability to pay for healthcare services
and housing services has also exacerbated their state of mental health. Ultimately increasing
poverty levels predict depression and anxiety among American youths aged between 18 and 29.
3. Key Regulation Policy: Determine economic policies or regulations that currently apply to your
public health issue.
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity (MHPAE) Act of 2008 is one of the key policies that
affect access to mental health issues including depression and anxiety. This policy requires coverage
for mental health issues including depression to be equitable compared with the general medical
coverage. For example, the policy dictates that out-of-pocket maximums, co-pays, and treatment
limitations for mental health should not be more restrictive compared with requirements for other
medical care services. Another key policy is the CARES Act which seeks to compensate individuals for
economic and employment losses related to the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in tax policies, and
credits.
4. Benefits and Consequences: Identify the perceived benefits and consequences resulting from the
legislation supporting your public health issue.
The MHPAE Act of 2008 increased access to mental health services for all persons. The policy
directly challenges discriminatory practices among healthcare providers. In the past, cases of
discrimination and prejudice directed toward people suffering from mental illnesses led to undue
high charges for accessing vital mental health.
MHPAE prohibits such discriminatory pricing of healthcare services effectively increasing access to
this vital service. Young adults were especially hit by the adverse economic consequence of the
coronavirus pandemic. The policy helps to level accessibility to treatment services for all mental
health issues and especially depression and anxiety. On the other hand, the CARES Act expanded
income by $600 per week for many financially distressed young adults. Besides offering a $1,200
one-off payment for adults receiving unemployment insurance, the Act also provided $500 for every
child. Economic support is vital in alleviating some of the pathways to depression and anxiety
disorders.
5. Impact of Regulation or Policy: Describe the economic impact resulting from the legislation
supporting your public health issue.
The CARES Act and MHPAE are instrumental in increasing the economic outcomes for young adults.
Aligning the financial requirements for accessing mental health services with the general
requirements reduced the economic burden associated with treating depression and anxiety among
vulnerable youths. Furthermore, the income received from CARES Act was instrumental in stabilizing
the livelihoods of many of the young people destabilized by the coronavirus pandemic.
6. References: Provide links or citations for three scholarly resources that you will use to support your
ideas regarding your public health issue.
1. Roll, S., & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2020). Did CARES Act benefits reach vulnerable
Americans? Evidence from a national survey. Brookings.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/did-cares-act-benefits-reach-vulnerableamericans-evidence-from-a-nationalsurvey/#:~:text=The%20expanded%20unemployment%20benefits%20offered,eve
ry%20child%20in%20the%20U.S.
2. Ruiz-Pérez, I., Bermúdez-Tamayo, C., & Rodríguez-Barranco, M. (2017). Socio-economic
factors linked with mental health during the recession: a multilevel
analysis. International journal for equity in health, 16(1), 1-8.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5339976/#:~:text=Results,in%20
healthcare%20spending%20per%20capita.
3. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAE). (2022). SHADAC.
https://www.shadac.org/sites/default/files/publications/HPS%202021%20Anxiet
y%20%26%20Depression%20Brief.pdf
4. The White House. (2022). Issue Briefs: Reducing the Economic Burden of Unmet Mental
Health Needs. https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/writtenmaterials/2022/05/31/reducing-the-economic-burden-of-unmet-mental-healthneeds/
5. Varma, P., Junge, M., Meaklim, H., & Jackson, M. L. (2021). Younger people are more
vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and depression during COVID-19 pandemic: A global
cross-sectional survey. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological
Psychiatry, 109, 110236.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7834119/