Persons with severe mental illnesses require a proper integration of medication management approaches to ensure a healthy and steady control of the key risk factors alongside a potential recovery. To conduct medication management in an evidence-based and effective manner, one should be willing to understand the risk-benefit elements of the given measures as well as utilize the advantages or benefits of collaborative decision-making approaches.
It is important to note that medications can be natural and highly effective at treating serious cases of mental illnesses, but they also can be particularly dangerous to the patients, which makes the subject of interest a relevant and necessary aspect of managing the medications of these individuals. For example, the drugs such as morphine, digitalis, lithium, and aspirin are effective drugs at improving the symptoms and outcomes of severe mental illnesses, but they also bring a host of health risks to their users (SW Classes, n.d.a). Therefore, approaches, such as shared decision-making to medication management, need to be put in place to ensure the care provided to a patient is centered on him or her.
The described measures can mainly involve three parties, such as psychiatrists, care coordinators, and service users, who need to cooperate to make a joint decision on medication-based treatment. The main benefit is that all parties can reach a clear agreement, but the challenge emerges when there is no structure or collaboration, which yields conflict and hindrances to the treatment (SW Classes, n.d.b). In addition, peer advocates on an interdisciplinary team can support the given collaborative approach by ensuring that the procedural protocols allocate resources and give sufficient power to mandate certain requirements for the benefit of the patient.
References
SW Classes. (n.d.a). Alan Gelenberg, MD [Video]. YouTube.
SW Classes. (n.d.b). Medication management[Video]. YouTube.