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Question: Discuss About The Hepatitis And Human Immunodeficiency Virus? Answer: Introduction In healthcare, various ailments exist that need the attention of health practitioners. However, there are those that pose a great challenge on the workforce because, among other reasons, they are complicated to treat. Dual diagnosis is one of them and creates challenges in many ways. Therefore, below is an essay that intends to elaborate on the challenges in handling dual diagnosis. It also intends to elaborate on the strategies, policies, and recommendations that can be put in place to counter or remedy the problem on workforce. Lastly, but most importantly, is to give an elaborate meaning of dual diagnosis. Description of the Condition and Challenges Dual diagnosis is a mental health condition resulting from a combination of mental health and alcohol or substance addiction. Therefore, it is a case of treating two conditions at the same time. In healthcare, medics tasked with the responsibility of treating and managing patients under this condition face several challenges. To start with training, there are insufficient personnel trained to handle such a cases (Antai-Otong, Theis, Patrick, 2016). Nurses, for instance, are not well equipped with skills necessary to tackle the condition. Moreover, there is no elaborate and accurate way of treatment out there suitable for all clients. Below are some of the problems, strategies and possible solutions. Challenges of Workforce Firstly, there is the problem of identification of specific ailments. Where two or more conditions affecting the clients exist, it is hard for nurses to identify and treat each one of them independently categorically. In the worst case scenario, one condition may overshadow the other making it go unnoticed for so long while treating the one that is causing the overshadowing. Research indicates that most nurses or psychiatrist often get confused when dealing with clients (McGovern et al., 2014). Thus, one condition blurs symptoms of the other, and in effect, the client does not get proper treatment in regards to his or her condition. For instance, a person with family difficulties may engage in drug and substance abuse and seek intervention from a psychotherapist or family therapy. Although that is the right intervention, there is also the drug or substance abuse case which may be overlooked, and as a result, the treatment will not be effective for all that is troubling or affecting t he client (Murthy, Chand, 2012). Thus, within a short period, he or she may drop out of the treatment program. Another challenge is insufficient training to handle such cases. There is considerably lacking in formal education. In particular, about evaluation of substance abuse and effective treatment. There is minimal training in medical schools in this specialty. More often than not, the program is an elective one, which suggests that only those interested in studying substance abuse and not dual diagnosis take such classes (Mestre-Pint et al., 2014). Without adequate training of professionals supposed to act as a major problem solver, it becomes difficult to tackle it in totality. In addition to that, there is a problem of lack of experience, deliberate discrimination by private hospitals and medics in handling dual diagnosis. For any professional to be competent in any profession, working experience is important. With the rise of cases of dual diagnosis, it is plausible to think that medics can run away from treating this group (Minassian, Vilke, Wilson, 2013). Thus, avoiding this group or neglecting to learn about dual diagnosis makes it unlikely that this group will ever learn to handle these clients. Additionally, whenever patients with dual diagnosis present themselves to medics, they are often referred to psychiatrists. Many private practitioners demonstrate an unwillingness to treat clients with the same condition. Therefore, it creates a huge burden to community centers where this group of patients often seeks intervention. More often than not, the community centers are underfunded and overburdened. Lastly, there is no approved method of treating peop le with dual diagnosis (Padwa et al., 2013). What medical researchers have tried to put across are models that one can apply in handling people with dual diagnosis. However, all these models have shortcomings in one way or another. Strategy, Policy, and Training The best strategy for medics to use in dual diagnosis is an integrated approach. Even though the method used to treat each ailment is not different, the integrated approach makes it possible for coordinating the process for the best effect. This entails health care professional working in the same setting but with different responsibility (Basu, Sarkar, Mattoo, 2013). Also, it involves both substance abuse and mental health in a cooperating manner without any form of division. Treatment may include motivational talks to clients, either through education or counseling, especially, to clients that are deeply demoralized by their condition. This in effect will enable them to see their self-worth and appreciate self-ill management. On the other hand, proper training, both formal and informal must be put in place for the sake of churning out competent medics with sufficient knowledge in handling dual diagnosis cases. One way of doing this is including the program in the curriculum, thus, enabling every professional to be conversant with the skills (Keltner, 2013). Moreover, those with working experience must train the junior staff and encourage them not to shy away from handling cases of dual diagnosis. Lastly, the government needs to put measures that will see sufficient funding to community centers accommodating this group of patients. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the government to encourage different communities to support this group of people and not discriminating them. Conclusion Therefore, dual diagnosis denotes a condition where a person is suffering from mental health and substance or alcohol abuse. There are many challenges to a health professional in treating the condition, among others, is that there is no recommended method for treatment but rather, models that have flaws in one way or another. Additionally, lack of proper training is a problem to the workforce making others to shy away from treating this group. However, using an integrated approach, which entails including the program in learning curriculum and sufficient government funding of community centers housing this group can help in solving the problem References Antai-Otong, D., Theis, K., Patrick, D. D. (2016). Dual Diagnosis: Coexisting Substance Use Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders. Nursing Clinics of North America, 51(2), 237- 247. Basu, D., Sarkar, S., Mattoo, S. K. (2013). Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with substance use disorders attending an addiction treatment center in India over 11 years: Case for a specialized Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Journal of Dual diagnosis, 9(1), 23-29. Keltner, N. L. (2013). Psychiatric nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences. McGovern, M. P., Lambert-Harris, C., Gotham, H. J., Claus, R. E., Xie, H. (2014). Dualdiagnosis capability in mental health and addiction treatment services: an assessment of programs across multiple state systems. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 41(2), 205-214. Mestre-Pint, J. I., Domingo-Salvany, A., Martn-Santos, R., Torrens, M. (2014). Dual diagnosis screening interview to identify psychiatric comorbidity in substance users: development and validation of a brief instrument. European addiction research, 20(1), 41-48. Minassian, A., Vilke, G. M., Wilson, M. P. (2013). Frequent emergency department visits are prevalent in psychiatric, alcohol abuse, and dual diagnosis conditions than in chronic viral illnesses such as hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus. The Journal of emergency medicine, 45(4), 520-525. Murthy, P., Chand, P. (2012). Treatment of dual diagnosis disorders. Current Opinion in Psychiatry,25(3), 194-200. Padwa, H., Larkins, S., Crevecoeur-MacPhail, D. A., Grella, C. E. (2013). Dual diagnosiscapability in mental health and substance use disorder treatment programs. Journal of dual diagnosis, 9(2), 179-186.