Abstract Essay

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

Throughout the Great Depression, there were great strides in discovering the science behind mental illness and the treatment of the mentally ill. Scientists tried many new treatments to help people with mental illnesses. Early in the 1900s researchers started to explore what caused a person to become mentally ill. In this time period, Sigmund Freud “developed a number of theories that attempted to explain unusual behavior” (“Mental Health Treatment”). People with mental illnesses were treated more like equivalents as opposed to inferiors starting in the early 20th century. Mental hospitals, formerly called asylums started to have specialist doctors and nurses to treat mental and physical disabilities. (Warwick). The villa system was introduced to mental hospitals in the early 1900s. This was a system in which several buildings were used to keep and treat patients rather than one large building to help individualize treatments (Warwick). Later, scientists tried using lithium and antipsychotic drugs to treat mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and to some extent had success. (“Mental Health Treatment”). The few people who sought treatment in mental facilities had a chance to be cured and treated for their diseases because of new scientific developments (Roosevelt).

The history of mental health in the United States show a robust movement towards the mental healthcare system we have today. Prior to the 19th century, individuals with mental health issues were widely considered to be demonically possessed, thus contributing to the stigmatization of mental illness and the proliferation of poor treatment conditions. However, in the 1800s, there was a dramatic change in mental healthcare in the U.S. The government took a proactive role in treating the mentally ill, leading to the dawn of state psychiatric facilities.

In 1946, President Truman signed the National Mental Health Act, allowing federal funds for education and research in mental health. By the time of the Great Depression and the World War II, asylums’ were in unsustainable conditions and traumatized veterans were returning home needing psychiatric attention. Also in a federal extent, Congress passed the Mental Health Study Act in 1955, establishing a commission to check policies and propose reforms in psychiatric treatments. Around that time the deinstitutionalization movement started changing the mental health picture.

The Mental Health Act of 1963 was put in to law by President John F Kennedy on October 31, 1963. The Mental Health Act also identified as: (Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963) led to the establishment of a variety of community mental health centers around the U.S. This act basically assisted people with mental illnesses who were stuck or held in clinical facilities move back into the regular population. Along with this law also many different developments of new psychotropic medications and innovative approaches to mental health drugs made it easier for this process to occur.

The second wave was behavioral sciences in the early twentieth century introducing reforms of medication and psychiatric hospitals. The use of medication and psychiatric hospitals was justified by four specific reasons protecting society and the mentally ill from danger, cure mentally ill patients receptive to treatment, improve the lives of the incurable, and achieve the goal of properly caring for the mentally ill. Following the construction of state psychiatric hospitals, various organizations and acts, such as Mental Health America (MHA) and U.S. Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 were also created to improve the lives of the mentally ill in the United States. The introduction of pharmacology led to the deinstitutionalization

Mental illnesses are very common in the United States, with one in five of adolescents having a diagnosed mental illness and in the last year less than half of these adolescents have received proper treatment. The most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression, can disrupt daily life and result in suicide, which is the third most frequent cause of death in teenagers (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Ten percent of adolescents did not have health insurance in 2013 and those who did, had a very limited amount of mental health care services provided to them (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). It has been proved that it is even less likely that adolescents who are poor, homeless, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will receive the care that is necessary for their health and even life (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Mental disorders are not only an

The United States has never had a federal-centered approach for mental health care, entrusting its responsibility to the states. The earliest initiatives in this field took place in the 18th century, when Virginia built its first asylum and Pennsylvania Hospital reserved its basement to house individuals with mental disorders (Sundararaman, 2009). During the 19th century, other services were built, but their lack of quality was alarming. Even then, researchers and professionals tried to put into effect some principles of the public health, focusing on prevention and early intervention, but the resources were in the hands of the local governments, which prevented

The lack of resources available towards adolescents that have mental health problems in juvenile detention centers is a growing concern among most facilities across the country. Consequently, “mental health professionals in juvenile detention settings are working with a population in need of extensive mental

With two-thirds of young people in detention centers meeting the criteria for having a mental disorder we can see that major changes need to be made (Holman & Ziedenberg, 2006). According to Holman and Ziedenberg (2006), a little more than a third of these juveniles need continuous clinical care. This rate is twice as high as the adolescent populace not detained in juvenile centers (Holman & Ziedenberg, 2006).

In this day and age, there seems to be an increase of mental health disorders among youth. One reason to explain this theory is substance abuse among youth, which is shown to take a heavy toll in their personal life. When these youth become institutionalized, their mental disorder becomes at a higher level due to the environment and improper treatment. The institutions that are meant to serve their clients (juveniles) need rehabilitation. The high percentage of mental health disorders in the Juvenile Justice System need different types of levels of care in mental health with specific individual treatments.

In 1946 the National Mental Health Act was established and signed by President Truman. This means that it took nearly 30 years of healthcare progression for the next major health reform could start. It was established due to enormous

There exists a limited amount of research in the field of child and youth mental health despite the high level of documented need in this area (Nadeau, Rousseau & Measham, 2012). In fact, near epidemic rates of mental health concerns have been found:

Teenage mental-health severely impacts a developing child's success in school and their day-to-day lives. Issues like depression and suicide need to be explored in our education because many are being affected.

Pre-adolescence is a crucial stage in a child’s life because it is during this stage that kids can learn the coping mechanism that can prevent complications later on in life (Britton et al., 2014). Some children and adolescents may not have the opportunity to seek proper mental health care during their childhood. This may be due to parents overworking or simply not being able to afford quality mental health care services (Bucci et al., 2016). However, schools can serve children and adolescents as a