Planning and Managing Resources

The role and value of housing in sustaining good mental health is often underestimated but yet is one of the core prospects in implanting quality community-based care services. Supported housing refers to a specialised sort of housing assisting mentally ill and vulnerable persons to live independently with other society members (World Health Organization, 2003). Arden Healthcare Ltd is affiliated to this particular course of ensuring the vulnerable class, and mentally ill persons live independently, while exploiting their potentials just like other community members. It is out of this pursuit we conceived a new “Mental Health Supported Housing project” to contribute to the basketry of empowering the mentally-challenged persons in their daily endeavours, as friends, family members as citizens of our country.

Supporting housing constitutes a valuable and cost-effective housing option for persons with mental challenges. Providing these people with housing not only motivate them live independently but also helps in narrowing the disparity between mental and physical health. Besides, it also greatly influences financial expenditures by the National Health Service and the country at large. Based on the positive implications bestowed by Mental Health Supported Housing project, its overall success is embedded on rational planning and budgeting, which can assist in the construction of effective mental health services.

Wright and Kloos (2007) argued mental service planners, service providers and managers are regularly confronted with the question of what physical and human resources are fundamental towards the delivery of a mental service, what staff, facilities and medication does a health service ought to offer quality, receptive and effective care, and how can mental health services rendered amidst scarce financial resource supply and indeed how much capital is required for a mental health service. It is out of these question planning ascends as a precursor to the success of any given mental healthcare facility.

To formulate an efficient and responsive financial plan for a mental healthcare facility, McGorry, Bates and Birchwood (2013) demonstrate four crucial steps which should be adhered to namely situational assessment of prevailing health services and service funding, needs assessments for mental health services, target setting for mental healthcare facility and implementation of service objectives through budget management, monitoring and evaluation. McGorry, Bates and Birchwood (2013) suggested the concept of planning and budgeting is cyclical. As new information on service development, utilization and outcomes emerges, responses can be induced to the situation analysis, needs analysis and subsequent planning.

Situational analysis encompasses various processes such as identifying population to be served, reviewing the context of mental health care, meaningful consultations with fundamental stakeholders (to offer cultural interpretations and priorities of mental illnesses), identifying the duty of mental health plan and budget, reviewing existing public sector service resources, reviewing other-sector service resources and reviewing existing demand for mental health care services in local context. These prospects contribute to a responsive planning, which can meet our objectives (World Health Organization, 2003).

Concerning needs analysis, the core aim is to integrate the needs of the locals unto mental health care. This phase encompasses various activities and processes such as outlining priorities as identified in the first phase (situational analysis), adjusting the prevalence data based on local demographic needs such as gender, age distribution and social status, identifying the anticipated cases per annum through consultations and priority-setting, estimating service resources for needs as identifies and estimating costs for identified target service resources.

The third step (target setting) is crucial because it incorporates information from the first and second phases for the sake of future planning. This phase encompasses setting priorities by identifying unmet needs of the highest priority from the second and first phases. Besides, the third phase encompasses option appraisal where planners and managers appraise service options for the most targeted priorities and setting targets for service plans on a medium-time scale of 3-5 years (Wright and Kloos, 2007).

The last phase (implementation) encompasses budget management. The accounting and management systems are laid in place for efficient control and monitoring of the mental health budget. In addition, this phase encompasses the elements of monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring is conducted on an on-going fashion through development of quality improvement systems and information system. Evaluation of the mental health care service complete the cycle, leading to a review of services and planning for future budget and service delivery.

Systematic process and approach to the implementation of a health care facility as the current one ensures priorities are well-set, key drivers of the service identified and allocated responsive budget. This systematic approach also ensures in-depth stakeholder participation, which contributes to the ownership of service implementation, consequently maximizing service responsiveness to the current needs and intended deliverables.

The ‘Mental Health Supported Housing’ project can be actualized through a pool of finance spearheading the implementation process. Financing is a key tool in the realization of feasible mental health system. It is the avenue through which policies and plans are converted to action through allocation of necessary resources. Without proper and sufficient funding, plans remains within the spectrum of rhetoric, but never pursued. Slade et al., (2014) suggested proper financing creates a resource base for operations and delivery of services, training of workforce, procurement and development.

The government’s major commitment is to safeguard the most vulnerable members of community including the mentally-ill who the ‘Mental Health Supported Housing’ project intends to assist in attaining autonomy and holistic wellbeing. Through such commitments, the government is therefore committed to protecting and elevating the supply of housing and ensuring it provides value for works and money for those not only working for it but also paying for it. This project can approach the government with a proposal, and articulate it to the government, while requesting for financial support to implement the proposal. The UK government may respond positively by donating some money to actualize this move.

The government’s intervention through the National Health Service (NHS) to fund housing projects for vulnerable members has contributed to supporting thousands of these vulnerable members. Based on the Supported Accommodation Evidence Review of 2015, approximately 716, 000 people were using supported housing throughout the entire UK. Supported housing is crucial since it not only support vulnerable people but also tackles homelessness, offer refuge, improve public health and motivate recovery to various groups of vulnerable class (Walker and Bryant, 2013)

Besides the government, there are three other funders of ‘Mental Health Supported Housing’ program namely reimbursement, contract and integrated. In reimbursement, the service provider accrues retroactive payment for services supplied. This payment may be directed to the purchaser or the patient, who may entirely or partially reimburse to the purchaser. A reimbursement fund offers grant to project developers after incurring expenses. The funder ought to adhere with particular procedures in obtaining reimbursement for project expenses. Such reimbursements are given on a payment schedule after the project developer submits comprehensive documents verifying expenses.

Contract funders encompass a consensus between financial providers and project proponents, the main aim being to attain increased control over total funding. In contract financing, the project receives the financial resources before it get started, and is collateralized by a contract between the funding agency and the project. This contract exhibits milestones and payments in accordance to the project progress towards its completion. Wright and Kloos (2007) argued contract financing is distinguishable from bank loan in that it is underwritten in accordance to contract terms and creditworthiness of a project as opposed to credit records. This approach is mainly typical in social insurance programmes with dominant non-profit providers. Integrated funders involve the context where the same agency controls not only funding but also the provision of services. The program developers are paid wages and budgets constitute major tool for allocating resources. Integrated funding contributes towards promoting quality programs by virtue of bundling payment to incentivise coordination.

Hovish et al., (2012) articulate three approaches through which to pump financial aid unto the realm of health care namely public finance, private individual payments and private individual payments. Further, the scholar discuses other various methodologies for financing mental health care such as social insurance, tax-based funding and out-of-pockets payments. In the modern days where technologies are revolutionizing on a daily basis, these methods have become handy in erecting community services for the betterment of those within “vulnerable” brackets.

Concerning our proposed ‘Mental Health Supported Housing’ project, two sources of funding are approachable including reimbursement and integrated sources. Reimbursement will ensure immediate payments for services supplied for the purpose if implementing our project plan. Concerning integrated source of funding, our project personnel and expertise, and stakeholders will be receiving payments for services rendered. This will ensure continued morale towards working for the achievement of set project deliverables.

Question 2: a) Discuss how effective resource management on Arden Healthcare Ltd. would support the performance of staff, the care team and the organization as a whole. Explore how this links to the short, medium, and long-tern goals of Arden Healthcare Ltd. Especially given its intention to expand.

The concept of resource management hold the project’s capacity to thrive and meet set objectives. Aswathappa (2013) writes effective resource management is the precursor of overall organisational performances. Since Arden Healthcare Ltd is an agglomeration of different resources ranging from human, financial and infrastructural resources. Effective planning and management breeds’ equitable distribution and allocation of resources in areas deemed necessary to inspire positive results.

Proper planning is mandatory for an organization to attain her optimum efficiency in service delivery. Proper planning not only elevates productivity, but also is a strong basis for motivation and internal cohesion. According to Srivastava and Dhar (2016), without protracting human resources as a strategic resource within a project task will bring forth challenges in assuring long-term strategic future for the organization despite there being financial resources. To compete favourably towards providing quality health care, the leaders of the health facilities ought to ensure the firms they lead are continuously reviewed to ensure they are responsive to the predetermined objectives. Besides, the leaders should ensure the costs of operations are suppressed; new innovations integrated and production is affiliated towards meeting societal needs accordingly (Srivastava and Dhar, 2016).

Similarly to the business world, human resource management in health care is one of the core drivers of competitive advantage for health centres. A responsive human resource domain ensures staffing needs are met to provide a basis for attainment of laid strategies. Human resource department also ensures the newly procured employees are competent enough to be given various roles to do in the on-going implementation process.

Burke, Noblet, and Cooper (2013) suggested effective resource management attracts, identify and keep health care givers a desirable culture and code within which to behave and conduct self with dignity and decorum. This sense of consciousness about professional conduct motivates the induction of suitable working conditions optimizing returns. Resource management equally leads to prudent consumption of organisational resources, quick delivery of objectives which consequently increase the extent of quality of care. In the present days where mental illnesses are pervasive in our communities, a vibrant framework addressing this need will be conceived on the podium of concrete resource management to ensure every bit of it is directed towards uplifting the standards of those who the programmes intend to.

According to the nursing code of ethics, the principle ethics therein including autonomy, beneficence, nomaleficence and justice are exercisable through a culture that is engineered through effective human resource management. Out of this conception, resource management and professional work ethics ate interwoven which therefore justifies the role if leadership in spearheading resource management. These four principles have become integral in the nursing and health care practice. A close adherence to such principles optimizes on health care outcomes, while respecting the integrity and differences between the involved parties (patients, family care givers and health professional) (Truss et al., 2013).

Based on rapidly increasing cultural backgrounds of both health care givers and patients in the realm of health care the concept of resource management ascends to become crucial unifying factors of the differences between different cultures. Through this intervention, well-coordinated, and responsive teams are created which spearhead cooperative working towards the attainment of predetermined goals. In addition, resource management ensures the application of correct technology systems which will not only complete tasks faster but also increase work efficiency and quality. Further, the rapidly globalizing world has revolutionized the conduct of health care through technological borrowing. Resource management has a vast role to play here not only in just copy pasting technologies, but also in conducting market analyses to evaluate the most responsive technologies that can suit the people’s preferences, tastes and needs.

The top leadership should always be worried about the intrigue of each and every employee’s performance. O’Boyle and Hassan (2014) suggest this pursuit can best be realized through efficient resource management. To initiate a competitive team and well-organised team, human resource management in health care should offer periodic improvement in areas such as job analysis and recruitment, ethical management model, legal aspects, healthcare career development and promotion, employee motivation, and future trends in employees’ development. These practices are best attained through a properly organizing the resource management elements.

The collaboration and partnerships between the management and Human Resource is unique in the realm of health care, including nursing since most of the health care facilities and organisations are founded on the threshold of dual managerial structure of clinical managers and health care services managers responsible for overseeing two typologies of employees with various training needs and responsibilities. This places human resource department at a strategic and sensitive position in harmonizing the two extractions into working together for the common goal.

Irrespective of the organisation, employees are required to adhere with legal and ethical standards allowable in the jurisdiction of healthcare. The legal prospects should be articulate between the consumer and the health care facility thus health care providers and health care professional. The concept of legal and legislative policies is subject to change periodically. The role of resource management is to keep on touch and ensure these dynamics are enforced and integrated within the company system. For instance, policies on environmental conservation and protection are continually revolutionizing to accommodate necessary measures against increasing impacts. The resource management docket ought to ensure their venture is responding effectively to new provisions to avoid unnecessary penalties.

Project developers enact plans to attain overall goals and they normally find it crucial separating planning into distinctive steps. This is to pave a way for tracking prompt improvements and evaluate progress towards the predetermined end. The various time frames of the planning venture exert more weight on time-sensitive elements of the company’s environment and structure. It is easier to distinguish planning on the premise of time frames and inputs and intended outcomes.

Resource management and various distinctive stages of strategizing including short-term, median-term and long-term strategizing are inextricably interrelated. Short-term planning considers Arden Health Care Ltd traits on the current form and initiates strategies to develop them. To address such issues such as product or equipment quality which require short-term (immediate) attention, the resource department induces short-term remedies to address the perceived issues. Employee training framework, equipment servicing, and quality fixes are examples of short-term solutions which set the ground for addressing much heavier challenges more comprehensively.

Medium-term planning utilizes a bit of more permanent remedies to short-term challenges envisioned in the Arden Health Care Limited. For instance, amidst the quests for expansion geographically, Arden Health Care Limited ought to count on scheduling training programs for the medium term intricacies. Arden Healthcare Ltd should consider laying foundation for issues such as how to strengthen the company’s quality program. Whereas short-term reaction to equipment failure is repairing the machine, a medium-term solution will seek to arrange for a service contract. In this orientation, medium-term strategizes procedures and policies to ascertain short-term challenges never recur again.

In long-term planning, Arden Healthcare Limited would intend to solve challenges permanently and pave a way for the realization of general goals. Long-term planning responds to the competitive context of the company in its economic, political and social environments and enacts plans for not only adapting to the prevailing conditions but also inspire its position in achieving lifelong goals. Long-term explores on main expenditures such as procuring facilities and equipment, and formulating and implementing procedures and policies which can orient the company’s image to align with top managerial ideas. When short-term and medium-term planning is a success, long-term planning constructs on such successes to safeguard accomplishments and ascertain relentless progress.

In conclusion, as the resource management departments mingle with various adjustments for the safety and continuity of an organisation, they should do this within the provision of budgetary allocations as drafted initially. Operating within the budget constraints provides assurance that the organisation will not run into financial shortages in the new future before the accomplishment of intended plans and objectives. Resource management docket should therefore be one of the most qualified departments in an organisation, since it is the heart, pumping all blood to all other organizational organs.

References

• Aswathappa, K., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
• Burke, R.J., Noblet, A. and Cooper, C.L. eds., 2013. Human resource management in the public sector. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Hovish, K., Weaver, T., Islam, Z., Paul, M. and Singh, S.P., 2012. Transition experiences of mental health service users, parents, and professionals in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study. Psychiatric rehabilitation journal, 35(3), p.251.
• McGorry, P., Bates, T. and Birchwood, M., 2013. Designing youth mental health services for the 21st century: examples from Australia, Ireland and the UK. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(s54), pp.s30-s35.
• O'Boyle, I. and Hassan, D., 2014. Performance management and measurement in national-level non-profit sport organisations. European Sport Management Quarterly, 14(3), pp.299-314.
• Slade, M., Amering, M., Farkas, M., Hamilton, B., O'Hagan, M., Panther, G., Perkins, R., Shepherd, G., Tse, S. and Whitley, R., 2014. Uses and abuses of recovery: implementing recovery‐oriented practices in mental health systems. World Psychiatry, 13(1), pp.12-20.
• Srivastava, A.P. and Dhar, R.L., 2016. Impact of leader member exchange, human resource management practices and psychological empowerment on extra role performances: the mediating role of organisational commitment. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 65(3), pp.351-377.
• Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K. and Delbridge, R., 2013. Employee engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory.
• Walker, G. and Bryant, W., 2013. Peer support in adult mental health services: A metasynthesis of qualitative findings. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 36(1), p.28.
• World Health Organization, 2003. Planning and budgeting to deliver services for mental health. In Mental health policy and service guidance package. World Health Organization.
• Wright, P.A. and Kloos, B., 2007. Housing environment and mental health outcomes: A levels of analysis perspective. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27(1), pp.79-89.