commentary1

     
Identify the Population   Health concern you selected.

Unfortunate Elevation   of Suicide Rate in America
 
Describe the Population   Health concern you selected and the factors that contribute to it. 

Suicide is mental illness   when people direct violence at themselves with intent to end their life which   is a major public health problem and leading cause of death in America.   According to Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suicide is tenth   leading cause of death in US claiming the lives of over 47,0000 people.   During 2001 – 2017 total rate increase is 31 percent from 10.7 – 14.0 per   100,000 and in male suicide is four times higher than female (National   Institute of Mental Health).
 
Administration (President   Name)

(Current President)
Donald J Trump

(Previous President)
Barack Obama

(Previous President)
George W Bush
 
Describe the administrative   agenda focus related to this issue for the current and two previous   presidents.

President Trump issued a   “National call to Action to Empower Veterans and End the National tragedy by   Veteran Suicide”, this administrative agenda focuses on improving the quality   of life of America’s Veterans and ending the tragedy of veteran’s suicide.   Despite significant efforts and billions of dollar investment veteran’s   suicide has raise to 26 percent from 2005-2016. President’s aim through this   agenda is to revolutionize the VA healthcare system (U.S. Department of   Veterans affairs,2016).
President Trump signed, the   National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act of 2018, which made civilian to   access suicide crisis prevention by direct 3-digit number rather than long 10   digits (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,2018).

In Obama’s administration,   Affordable Care Act played crucial role in extension of mental health and   substance use disorder benefits and parity protection among individuals who   were suffering from mental health illness. Obama also focused in prevention   of American Veteran suicide by making easy access to the mental health   providers. President proclaimed September 10,2015 as world suicide prevention   day by making awareness to citizen, government agencies, organization, health   care institute and research institute. He focused on prevention of bullying   and harassment which is major leading cause of suicide among teenagers
(The Whitehouse,2015).

In Bush’s administration, suicide   was introduced as one of the serious mental health problems among civilian   and veterans. In 2001 Bush’s agenda was focused in serving all person at risk   of suicide in US through network of local, certified crisis call center. This   program now called the National Suicide prevention lifeline. Agenda primary   focus was to make it available 24/7. In 2009 on supervision of Bush VA added   1-1 “chart service” for veteran who prefer to reach through internet (US   Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).
President Bush signed H.R.   327, the “Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act” and H.R. 1284 the “   Veterans compensation cost-of-living adjustment act,2007) into law which   required VA to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the   incidence of suicide among veterans and increase beneficiaries of veteran’s   disability compensation(Office of press secretary,2007).
 
Identify the allocations of   financial and other resources that the current and two previous presidents   dedicated to this issue.

The executive orders on   president’s Roadmap to empower Veteran’s and End a National Tragedy of   suicide establishes a task force that includes the secretaries of VA,   Defense, Health and Human services and Homeland security. Frequent meeting of   the taskforce is held for topic prevention of suicide which includes head of   other executive department and agencies to other senior officials in the   Whitehouse office. President Trump secured a record $73.1 billion in funding   for the VA to provide quality medical care which includes $8.6 billion for   mental services and $206 million for suicide prevention (Whitehouse, 2018).
The president has expanded   access to telehealth services to help reach more veterans through “Anywhere   to Anywhere” effective VA health care initiative (Whitehouse,2018).

Affordable Care Act (ACA)   created Prevention and public health fund which funded 27 grants for   prevention of suicide (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).

President George W Bush   signed the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act on October 21, 2004, turning bill   into law, the measure provides $82 million in grants to school, colleges,   universities and American Indian organization for development of suicide   prevention program (Kelvin,2004).
 
Explain how each of the   presidential administrations approached the issue.

President’s roadmap to   empower Veterans include a national research strategy for engaging with   public and private sector stakeholders to better understand the underlying   factors of suicide and lead to earlier identification and intervention, it   also includes a proposal for equipping state and local government with the   resource and tools to empower veteran communities. This roadmap helps to   create on active engagement with each veteran because 70 percent veteran   suicide without any mental assessment and intervention, it helps each veteran   for easy access of healthcare (Whitehouse,2018).
Mr. Trump’s order made a wide   range of mental health services available to all veterans as they transition   back to civilian society. Trump directed the department of VA for expansion   of health care to telemedicine, which has the potential to connect veteran   with care no matter where they live, and its use of technology allows former   service members to schedule appointment online. If VA can’t serve them   quickly then Veteran can go for private and allowance will be given (White   house,2018).

The Affordable Care Act   extends mental health and substance use disorder benefits and parity   protection to over 60 million Americans, helping men and women across country   to access critical care. Protection under the health care law prohibit   insurers from denying coverage because of pre- existing conditions, like a   diagnosis of mental health illness and require most insurance plan to cover   and recommended prevention service without co pays, including behavioral   assessment for children and depression screening( The White House,2018).
In February, Obama signed the   Clay Hunt suicide prevention for American Veteran Act to help fill serious   gaps for serving veterans with PTSD and other illness. Obama announced 19   executive actions to make it easier for veterans to access care, including   increasing the number of mental health providers at the department of   Veterans Affair (The White House,2018).

Suicide prevention national   strategy was first released in 2001, assembled by president George W Bush in   2002,the commission was asked to study mental health service delivery system,   to make recommendations that would enable adults with serious mental health   illness and children with serious emotional disturbance at work and    school. Participating fully in their communities, after one year of   study, reviewing and testimony the group issued its final report, which   identified six goals and corresponding recommendation. Activity in the filed   of suicide prevention has grown dramatically since the national strategy was   issued in 2001.Government agencies at all levels, school, nonprofit   organization and business have started program to address suicide prevention   (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).
The network of local   certified crisis call center was established in such a way that people in   crisis get their call transferred in nearest place so that suicide prevention   team can be in place of crisis quickly. There are greater than 100 suicide   call centers in 49 states. In October 2011, lifeline answered about 3 million   calls. (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).