Doctors and nurses treat and look after the patients.
Isaac Abraham, MSN, RN, has worked with us at Compass Clinical Consulting for many years. He’s one of the most truly authentic, compassionate, skilled, gifted and exceptional leaders (and teachers) in healthcare consulting. Isaac specializes in the treatment of Mental Health Patients in the Emergency Department (ED). A tireless advocate for psychiatric patients, Isaac shares with us some of his hard-earned insights and illuminating lessons he’s learned throughout his career.
Behavioral Health Patients are “Our Patients”
I went to the University of Virginia and earned my Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Nursing. I wanted to learn as much as I could in the field, and teach other healthcare professionals. Soon, my overarching goal became apparent. I wanted medical professionals to understand that mental illness truly is a sickness. That’s the point that I try to drive home to every healthcare professional that treats mental/behavioral/psychiatric patients.
As the years passed, I noticed we began to have fewer and fewer resources in the communities. In some areas I traveled, they didn’t even have enough beds to take care of the psychiatric patients, especially smaller rural areas. That’s what got me interested in caring for psychiatric patients. One of the things I experienced early on was that when I’d go to the emergency room to assess psych patients, some nurses would refer to them as “your patient.” I’d try to get them to understand that “they’re our patient.”
Unfair Double Standard
In my mind, the experience of how the psychiatric mental health patients were treated versus the people who came in for medical reasons became an unfair double standard. This sparked me to become an advocate for the treatment of mental health patients in the ED. I’ve always been a strong advocate for the mental health population, but this increased my motivation to want to do something to make their patient experience in the emergency department as comfortable and efficacious as possible.
It became apparent to me that it was happening all across the country – and still is. The treatment of psych patients in the ED caught the attention of government leaders and action was taken. The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) got involved with regulatory rules, standards, and procedures. Because of this, I started traveling the country doing mock surveys (assessments) of the treatment of psychiatric patients in the ED.