Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association
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J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc · May 2021
Access to Mental Healthcare in the 21st Century: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis.
One of the most important aspects of receiving medical care is access to that care. For people with mental illness who have greater healthcare needs and are at risk for poor health outcomes, reduced access to care constitutes a crisis. While the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic continues to affect the United States, specifying what it means to have access to mental healthcare is more critical than ever. ⋯ The concept of access to mental healthcare is often used stagnantly across disciplines to create health policies, yet the concept is transformative. Future research requires up-to-date operational definitions of access to mental healthcare to target interdisciplinary approaches.