...Mental Illness on the rise in America How can we address that Mental illness is a growing problem for the United States? A mental illness is a condition that impacts a person’s thinking, feeling or mood that may affect his or her ability to relate to others and functions on a daily basis. Each person will have different experiences even people with the same diagnosis. Mental Illness is a growing problem in the US. Some people believe that mental illnesses isn’t a growing problem for the United States. This is something that has been happening for the longest, citizens are just noticing how many people actually have a mental illness today than before. For example, A psychiatrist diagnosed Connor with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and...
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...Vulnerable Populations The term Mental Illness covers a wide variety of disorders ,which can be mild to severe in nature. These disorders cause a breakdown in thoughts and behaviors making it difficult to impossible for a person to cope with daily life. There are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness (Mental Health America, 2011) and include different forms of depression and other emotional disorders, anxiety disorders, dementia, and personality disorders. It is estimated that there are more than 50 million Americans living with one form of mental illness or another. Knowledge and understanding of mental illnesses has come a long way in the last century, before this time many were labeled as being possessed by demons. In order to “cure” them, people were often subjected to physical and emotional abuse; it was often believed that the only way to exorcise the demons was to beat them out of a person. People were locked away and isolated from the population at large, neglected and abused there was little hope or understanding for a person suffering from mental illness. Great strides were made in 1908 after a man named Clifford Beers released an autobiography titled “A Mind That Found Itself” (Mental Health America, 2010). Beers had spent time in a mental institution after his brother’s death and had witnessed firsthand the inhuman treatment of the patients, after his release he began a national movement to humanize the treatment of those with mental illnesses. From this early...
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...is important to consider that many of them will have co-occurring disorders. For example, many people who are substance abusers will often have an undiagnosed mental health issue that they may be self medicating for, or even a diagnosed disorder but have no insurance or way of getting the help him or her may need. The history of Mental illness is hard to believe. Many people went through enormous misery coping with the illness, especially with the public beliefs towards the mentally ill population. People with mental illness were seen as possessed by demons or animal- like. Because of this, the mentally ill were treated horrifically. The mentally ill were often treated similar to what was seen in the movies. Humans were tied down or put into strait jackets, beaten and tortured in an attempt to try and release the demons that possessed him or her. “In 1900, Clifford Beers, a Yale graduate and young businessman, suffered an acute breakdown brought on by the illness and death of his brother. Shortly after a suicide attempt, Beers was hospitalized in a private Connecticut mental institution. At the mercy of untrained, incompetent attendants, he was subject to degrading treatment and mental and physical abuses (Mental Health America, 2012). Because of what Beers went through, he decided to help make a better America. His struggles “sparked a...
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...Vulnerable Populations The term Mental Illness covers a wide variety of disorders ,which can be mild to severe in nature. These disorders cause a breakdown in thoughts and behaviors making it difficult to impossible for a person to cope with daily life. There are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness (Mental Health America, 2011) and include different forms of depression and other emotional disorders, anxiety disorders, dementia, and personality disorders. It is estimated that there are more than 50 million Americans living with one form of mental illness or another. Knowledge and understanding of mental illnesses has come a long way in the last century, before this time many were labeled as being possessed by demons. In order to “cure” them, people were often subjected to physical and emotional abuse; it was often believed that the only way to exorcise the demons was to beat them out of a person. People were locked away and isolated from the population at large, neglected and abused there was little hope or understanding for a person suffering from mental illness. Great strides were made in 1908 after a man named Clifford Beers released an autobiography titled “A Mind That Found Itself” (Mental Health America, 2010). Beers had spent time in a mental institution after his brother’s death and had witnessed firsthand the inhuman treatment of the patients, after his release he began a national movement to humanize the treatment of those with mental illnesses. From this early...
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...Mass Shootings in America: Who Else Is Responsible? As everyone may or may not know, murder by gun occurs almost everywhere in the world; however, in America the percentage of people killed by guns is higher than any other country. For instance, in the article published in USA Today “11 mass shootings, 11 speeches: how Obama has responded”, has reported several places where many people were killed and wounded, such as: “Fort Hood shooting, Tucson congressional event shooting, Aurora Movie Theater shooting, and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting…etc” (Gregory). These are the places where mass shootings have happened in America, and we all might know that those tragedies are very painful and sad for Americans; especially the victim's families...
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...means of treatment or punishment for the mentally ill. The patients are chained down, sexually assaulted and beaten. Whatever society thinks of mental illness this type of treatment has to stop. Once we have educated ourselves on mental illness, we can begin to have a better understanding of those people who suffer from these types of diseases. If we look to the past we can see where we went wrong and correct those mistakes. Mental illness is something that can be traced throughout history. By looking back over the past of mental illness we see that there were infinite numbers of mistakes made a long way. We cannot allow those same mistakes to take place again. By breaking the cycle and avoid those same mistakes we can build a better future for the mentally ill. This is why I believe it is important to study the past of mental illness. Evidence indicates that Mental illness can be traced as far back as the early Egyptians. What we know today about mental illness is far different then what early Egyptians believed. The early Egyptians believed that all diseases had some type of physical affect on the body as well as the mind. The Egyptians did not differentiate between mental and physical illness. They did believe that the heart was the cause of mental illness. During the time of early Egypt, many believed that the cause of mental illness was from some type of loss usually money or status. Egyptians...
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...Where Does America Go from Here? How close to being homeless are you? Any person living in poverty is one mishap away from living out on the streets. Many Americans live everyday with a risk of being homeless or becoming homeless, America has the highest homelessness rates in the world and the biggest problems are not enough jobs opportunities and outsourcing, not enough affordable housing, and mental illness. PROBLEM 1 Homelessness can be directly related to a shortage of jobs in America due to outsourcing and businesses being shut down. Although most of the population has jobs there is a small percentage that don’t and in that percentage lays the homeless percentage. Long-term unemployed individuals rates have not changed since June of...
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...weakness and that broken leg is a tell tale sign of evil. Now imagine that the cut is a cut to the ties of past friends, family and culture- one’s entire support system. The broken leg is a broken spirit from the life left behind. Yet still, these injuries are not valued as real. In Farah Ahmedi’s Other Side of the Sky, an Afghani girl who lost both of her legs to a land mine tells her story of coming to America. At the end of the novel when she and her mother are living in America, Farah describes her mother becoming an empty shell. She is mourning the loss of her tight knit family she left behind and the culture she knows and understands. It is clear that becoming an immigrant has deeply affected Farah’s mothers mental state and well being. In fact, immigrants coming to America face many barriers that make them more susceptible to mental illness; however, because of the stigma that surrounds mental...
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...common occurrence in America “from 2000 to 2010 a total of 335,609 people died from guns” (“Just the facts: Gun violence in America”) these numbers are a striking and often shocking realization of the gun violence in America. . Gun legislation has become a prominent debate among government officials, and the general population has started to demand stricter gun laws. Gun violence is a major issue in our country - a problem we have been unable to address because of political pundits refusing to come...
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...grew in the 1980s, as housing and social service cuts increased. This was in part a consequence of the transfer of federal dollars to a huge military buildup (including the spectacularly wasteful and unsuccessful "Star Wars" strategic missile defense initiative) and consequent large budget deficits. Fortunately, public compassion soared, and in 1986, 5 million Americans joined hands across the country to raise money for homeless programs (May 25, 1986 Hands Across America). In 1987, the McKinney Act authorized millions of dollars for housing and hunger relief (Donahue, 2007). Nature and Issues of Social Problems Homeless and poverty go together. People are unable to pay for food, clothing, shelter, child care, health care, and education. Choices have to be made to have what they need for their daily life so they have to put other things behind to cover necessities. Domestic violence leads people to become homeless because they are forced to choose from the abusive relationship or becoming homeless. Mental illness issues also force people to become homeless. They are unable to find supportive housing or adequate treatment. Addiction issues also put so many people on the streets to feed their addiction before any other basic need. They need to address low-income housing crisis. Accident or an emergency...
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...Treatment for Mental Illness Stacey Adam English 111- BBH Professor Fernandez Ivy Tech Community College November 12, 2009 Treatment for Mental Illness The word “mental” means mind, and a mental illness is a medical condition that disturbs a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, interactions with others, and daily functioning (Bobgan, 2000). Until recently with all the studies and research on treatment, understanding, and acceptance of mental illnesses, mystery and fear have always surrounded it. A lot of people believe that mental illnesses are rare and “could only happen to someone else.” There are over two hundred classified forms of mental illnesses and many ways to treat them. Schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic or anxiety disorder, and personality disorder are some of the most common mental illnesses. The signs and symptoms for mental illness vary in every person depending on the possible disorder and because every person’s perception of “normal” is different. Changes in behavior, mood and personality, sadness, crying, anger, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, and withdrawal from family and friends are just a few of the signs and symptoms related to mental illness. It is very difficult to find the exact cause of a mental illness, but research shows that these conditions can be caused from a combination of genetics, biological, psychological, and environmental factors...
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...Mental health is known as the psychological well being and satisfactory adjustment to society and to the ordinary demands of life. Mental health is linked to disorders that are generally characterized by dysregulation (impairment of a physiological regulatory mechanism) of mood, thought, and/or behavior (CDC Mental Illness). When people hear that a person has a mental illness they tend to treat them as if they have a disease. People with mental illnesses are treated like outcast of society. This stigma, whish is defined as a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person; needs to be addressed in the American society. If people are afraid to speak out about the possibility of having mental illnesses than they will never be treated for them. Mental illnesses can lead tragedies like suicides or homicides, which could have been prevented with the right treatments and medications. According to the National Institute of Mental Health back in 2012 there was an estimated 43.7 million adults with a mental illness the equivalent of 18.6 percent United States adults. In the same year there were an estimated 9.6 million adults with a serious mental illness the equivalent to 4.1 percent of United States adults (National Institute of Mental Health). This is a large percent of American citizens with a mental illness. Imagine how many citizens there is that we do not know about because they do not have the resources for help or they are embarrassed to speak...
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...Mental Health of America Introduction: A) Catch Statement - According to a 2010 census, about 39% of homeless people have mental health issues and about 4% of all violent crimes are committed by those with mental illnesses. B) Description of info - Due to deficits in the mental health care industry, severely mentally ill people find themselves unable to improve their health and living situations. Promoting a better point of view towards mental health care would help reduce violent crimes and help people understand what it's about. C) Thesis - The government should allocate more tax dollars towards rebuilding the mental health care system. Body: I. How did mental illness evolve into our culture? A. History 1. People with mental illness in the middle ages 2. 1840's Dorothea Dix activist and psychiatric hospitals 3. Mental health in the mid-1960's 4. Mentally ill and violence II. How did mental health care start to decline? A. Deinstitutionalization 1. Feb. 5, 1963 JFK's new proposal to fund community mental health centers (CMHCs) 2. CMHCs were not interested in helping those with more severe problems 3. President Ronald Regan ended program 1981 B. Outcasting people with mental illness 1. Judgment of mentally ill living in the streets 2...
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...Millions of Americans live with mental illness. There are so many health problems that include anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), psychotic disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and eating disorders. Those are only some of the most common mental disorders that we know of. There are many more mental disorders which are less common and they include dissociative disorder, sexual and gender disorders, somatic symptom, and tic disorders. One out of six people take psychiatric drugs to help them cope or control these illnesses. The research on mental health/illness has come a long way it’s been traced back to sometime in 500 BCE (before common era) (From Skull Drills to Happy Pills...
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...Mental Health Care Disparities: Consequences of Ineffectiveness and Lack of Access for Minorities Ebony Marinnie RN Rowan University Mental Health Care Disparities: Consequences of ineffectiveness and lack of access for minorities For ages mental illness has been seen as the ultimate curse. The mentally ill were seen as possessed, hidden from society, and never talked about. In America, it is estimated that 26.2 percent of people ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosed mental disorder in a given year (Kessler,Chiu, Walters, & Demler, 2005). The aforementioned statistics reflect those that have sought or been forced into treatment. There are many left uncounted due to lack of access and ineffective treatment secondary to a number of reasons. Considering history, discrimination, personal perception, socioeconomic status, educational backgrounds and a host of other reasons many minority groups are reluctant to seek out treatment in what many may consider a system of mental health created and sustained primarily for the middle and upper-class White America. In fact, 60 percent of people with mental illnesses do not receive treatment (Kessler et al., 2005). The purpose of this paper is to discuss mental health care disparities in minority populations within American society, and to suggest some needed changes to close the gap in America. One quarter of all Americans meet the criteria for having a mental illness and a quarter of those have a disorder that significantly...
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