Chicago Mental Health Issues

The Rise in Mental Health in the United States: Comprehending the Past and Moving Forward, Especially in Youth

The provision of mental health services in the U.S. is a social justice issue that affects vulnerable populations in a variety of ways, including: limited access to quality mental health programs, especially in rural areas; the stigma associated with seeking mental health help; and discrimination against those with mental health issues. The far-reaching implications on our current system and policies of mental health care mean that it is a pervasive issue in the United States. According to the Scientific American, “Mental health care is one of the biggest

Fazel, S., Khosla, V., Doll, H., Geddes, J. (2008). The prevalence of mental disorders among the

“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.

The impact of mental illness on public service and economics is profound in the state of Florida. Improving the quality and funding of mental healthcare requires public administrator development through practical management and intellectual organization and although such evolution consists of examining theoretical ideology, primary importance should be placed on putting theory into practice. Dutil (2014) affirms that practice and policy are results of routine; however, the state of Florida has routinely allocated decreasing amounts of financing for the mental illness crisis. More importantly, the state is failing to draw lessons from public service icons such as Gulick, Weber, and FDR who began

Mental disorders are one of the most common causes of disabilities. In any given year over 18% of adults or close to 43 million people in the United

Chicago is commonly referred to as the Chicago metropolitan area or the Chicago land in the United States. It is associated with the city of Chicago, Illinois and its suburbs. The area is among the most populated in the United States with over 9.8

able to be treated or is never diagnosed at all. This is because treatment is very expensive and hard to access, and without proactive care of the mentally ill there can be various unfortunate outcomes, sadly including, death. So, why is access to mental health care so limited and what is the government of Ohio doing to solve it and what else should be done?

Lack of access to mental health care and treatment is one of the top ten reasons that many mental health conditions go untreated. Many private and group health insurance plans only include minimal mental health care coverage or do not incorporate mental health care coverage at all. Over half of adult citizens of the United States of America, who possess a mental illness, do not obtain mental health care treatment. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one out of every five adults in America have endured their own mental health difficulty, and one out of every twenty-five American adults suffer from a severe mental illness, such as major depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. (Top 5 Barriers to Mental Healthcare Access, Social Solutions.com, 2017)

Access to mental health care is not as good as than other forms of medical services. Some Americans have reduced access to mental health care amenities because they are living in a countryside setting. Others cannot get to treatment for the reason of shortage of transportation or vast work and household tasks. In some areas, when a

Known as the "Windy City", Chicago boasts a wide variety of sightseeing, shopping and cultural influences.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that was released in August of 2010, the number of overdose deaths from prescribed painkillers had escalated from 4,000 deaths per year in 1999 to almost 15,000 deaths per year in

Over the years, there have been 10,008 prescription drug deaths, as of February 16, 2001. These deaths are the recorded deaths from drugs being used that were prescribed by a doctor. Not from overdose and from being abused, these people died from normal therapeutic use of the medications they were taking. There have been zero deaths associated with using marijuana in any form. You would have to smoke 1,500 pounds of marijuana in 14 minutes to overdose and die. Human beings are not physically capable of doing this (Marczyk).

Drug Abuse is a global problem. Drug abuse is a medical concern, as it is a pattern causing damage to health. It is important to discern the difference between drug abuse and drug use, as we will be looking at the problem of drug abuse today. Of an estimated 246 million people who used an illicit drug in the past year, 27 million (around 11%) experienced problem drug use, which was defined as a pattern of psychoactive substance use that is causing damage to health. The damage may be physical (like HIV or hepatitis following injection of drugs) or mental (depressive episodes after heavy drinking). Harmful use commonly has adverse social consequences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a record 33,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015, killing more people each year than car accidents. In 2015, the number of heroin deaths nationwide surpassed the number of deaths from gun homicides.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “In 2014 a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the U.S.” In additional to this The United States Department Of Justice calculated that “From 2002 to 2007 three percent of