Comprehensive Mental Health Services (CMHS) is an organization in Kansas City, Missouri dedicated to serving those with mental illnesses, ranging from both low- to high-functioning. This group has a for-profit and non-profit side. The for-profit side utilizes doctors, nurses, and a pharmacy to aide in the non-profit side. Case workers, therapists, addiction recovery, and group homes are all funded via the organization. With diverse staff involvement, CMHS has a multitude of positions ranging from full-time salary doctors, to full-time hourly case workers, to volunteers. Volunteers vary between other organizations that CMHS collaborates with, including Harvester’s food pantry, and even patients who want to donate their time to some of the less-fortunate. While those with mental illnesses are oppressed, this report is not about their oppression, rather their open-mindedness on the oppression of those around them. Rachael Miller is a case worker at CMHS. She works with a multitude of mentally ill individuals ranging from low-functioning white women, to high-functioning, gay black men (2015). Most of these mentally ill patients are understanding that they are oppressed; and with that, understand the oppression of others that surround them. For instance, almost all of Miller’s patients are completely tolerant toward other races and those of other sexualities; however, there was one individual, cover-named “Tim”, that was both homophobic and racist when he began his
Why do you believe you are a good candidate for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Argosy University?
In quantum physics as well as in various ancient civilisation there was/ is believe that all is corrected including people. It my my believe, that it is really so. We all creating each other reality as well as improving/ destroying one to another ( helping or acting badly in order to make a harm)
The mentally ill population in society is an oppressed group of individuals because they are powerlessness, exploited and marginalized. Powerless because of the inhibitions against the development of their capacity, the lack of power in decision making and the disrespect that they faced because of their status (Mullaly 2010, p. 37). Individuals will often stare, point, make negative ignorant statements and devalue the mentally ill because they behave in a different manner from the rest of society. They are oppressed on the personal and the structural level because of the inequities experienced, which in turn cause them disproportionate levels and incidences of stress, anguish, frustration, alienation, exclusions and a higher mortality rate (Mullaly 2010, p.153). Being incarcerated is also a form of oppression because they are a group that is segregated from the general population, denied specific rights and have
It’s been about 5 years ever since I came in as an impatient to your program. I was admitted there 7 long and dreadful days. I’d like to give thanks for the moments when the treatment did help for myself and the other patients. Although just like every situation, the good always comes with some bad. There’s a few things that I found disturbing when I was receiving my treatment. It might have not had come as a red flag to the administration but to us patients it was another pain added to our long list. We were all there for one main reason, to get help. But the word help was so powerful and intimidating to us, that it made us not want to open up. Yes, there was other ways to get information
Mental Health Action Plan Overview Over the course of the semester, we have been developing an Action Plan with the objective of improving the situation of the significant number of offenders with mental health issues in Canadian prisons. This Mental Health Action Plan for Offenders was developed to ensure that the specialized needs of prisoners with mental health issues are better met. The following Action Plan advocates for the reform of the current procedures in place for dealing with federal offenders suffering from mental health issues.
Another issue people with mental illness face is comorbidity of illnesses. Due to the fact that mental health and physical health are conjoined, comorbidity of other illnesses tends to occur when mental illness goes untreated, or vice versa. One study estimates 25 years of life are lost for each person with a serious mental illness, which is commonly attributed to illnesses like cardiovascular disease and diabetes (Shim & Rust, 2013). On top of that, further data shows that when compared to people without a mental illness, people who are mentally ill receive less attention to comorbid issues, and an overall lower quality of care (Smith et al., 2016). One example of receiving an abnormal level of attention during a doctor visit could be referred to as diagnostic overshadowing, which is when a person’s mental disorder diagnosis overshadows physical ailments (Kassam, Papish, Modgill, & Patten, 2012).
It is sad that in our society, conformity and assimilation have led to schisms in our communities. The Calgary Case Study is one such example. Mentally ill people who are marginalized face a myriad of struggles that are belittled and poorly understood. Those of us who are in a position to make a positive contribution to the lives of mentally ill community members, would rather choose to spend our efforts on more esthetically pleasing “charities”. It seems that mainstream society would rather see the issues surrounding the mentally ill simply go away and remain ignored. As social workers, it is our responsibility to make certain that this does not continue. In the following pages we will explore the
Mental health is one of significant issues in New Zealand. The government has been making greater efforts to improve the quality and outcomes of mental health and addiction services for clients, families, whānau, and communities for a number of years (Ministry of Health, 2012). According to Ministry of Health (2014a), approximately 148,000 people accessed mental health and addiction services in 2011/12. Of these, 54% were male while 46% were female. Furthermore, approximately 126,000 people were seen by DHBs, and over 46,000 people were seen by NGOs. Some of these clients were supported by both DHBs and NGOs that involve community mental teams as well as alcohol and drug teams. Although a number of health services are available to people with mental health problems, there are approximately 500 people die by suicide every year. Almost 200 people who died by suicide in 2011 were mental health service clients (Ministry of Health, 2014b).
The Mental Health act is easily applied and relevant to social workers. In different teams working to achieve purposes of the Act, social workers are often represented as duly authorised officers (DAO) or in the court systems. As points of contact, social workers coordinate the clients care, support and develop goals and look after social and practical needs. When the act has a patient in care, a social worker may help assist the family with welfare, benefits, housing or jobs. Under the Act, a patient may feel out of control and so a social workers purpose is to be an advocate and the first person they confide in. Social Workers also work alongside the Act’s client centered model. This means there is a strong focus on strengths perspectives and self determination. In a mental health case, a social workers
systemic review of the effectiveness of mental health promotion interventions for young people in low and middle income countries (2013) appropriately address various areas of explorations related to therapeutic techniques that are best suited for low and middle income countries’ populations. Thus, a strength of the article is that Margaret et al., provides numerous, supporting techniques that can be utilized for children and youth. In explaining most of the techniques, the audience would most likely be able to practice them, being they are so detailed. For example, the specific age range, length of intervention, implementation issues, study design, and the outcomes are all provided. Though there is not an outline of what is specifically
I am writing regarding the health services that are provided for patients with mental illness. I am a resident of Brampton West and I am delighted that you are representing me as your M.P.P. According to CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), there has been a report about a significant amount of people with mental illness. One in five Canadians have a mental health issues. In Ontario high schools, 34% of students recall having psychological distress while, 14% students proclaim they have a mental illness. This is a crucial conflict, due to stress over school, or social issues that affects many people. Crucial issues that need changes are long waiting times, insufficient counselling care, and underfunded therapy. If you’d take the time to put yourself in our viewpoint and think about the damage that anxiety and depression can cause, then you would understand why people are willing to do anything to solve this issue. People would rather commit crimes, take drugs, and commit suicide. Would you want this in your own country?
We conducted interviews with new members and with a leader of the club who had been involved for years. All of the interviewees have in the past or are currently struggling with mental illness and saw TWLOHA as a safe and welcoming community when they came to Grand Valley. We found that a primary goal of the group as a whole is to rid the stigmas of mental health, starting with the Grand Valley campus, through creating a dialogue, service, and advocacy. We asked if this club was only for people who struggle with mental illness, and we were pleasantly surprised by their responses that “No, anybody (can join), it helps create a dialogue and it educates people. People can talk about it and make it not a bad thing because there's a lot of negative thoughts about mental health.” We began the interviews in an etic fashion with pre-written questions but ended up going off the path to having a natural, emic conversation about the topic of mental health. The members do not feel negativity towards mental health at Grand Valley, though this may not be the case for everybody else who does not know enough about the subject. To expand on the primary group dynamic between some members, interviews confirmed that there was an instance where a very close friendship/roommate formed due to meeting through the group. Lastly, the lack of attendance and structure of the meetings can be summed up by a response from another girl who mentioned:
i know that only a few of you care, but this is going to be a pretty long post talking about the state of my mental health.
Elise Eifert , Professor, PhD in Public Health from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Gerontology Certificate, and former Alzheimer’s disease educator
Abounded by the government, forgotten by the health aid, neglected and mistreated by the society; Somalians with mental illness are resigned to the dark corners of mosques, chained to the rusted hospital beds, and locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons. These are the horrifying stories we hear from our elders on dinner tables. Mental health and mental illness were viewed in my home country, Somalia, and other countries in Africa as a curse or a bad omen, and in some countries, these views still exists today. Globally, Africa is known as a large continent, inclined to strife. Most of its countries are defined by their low income, increase prevalence of communicable diseases and malnutrition, low life expectancy and poorly staffed health services. Thus, mental health issues often come last on the list of priorities for policy makers.